mi  im  1^1 


"^^AavaaiH^' 


^^WEUNIVER%.       ^lOSANCElfj^ 


^5»EUNIVER5/^        .VlOSANCElfj-^ 


^.OFCAIIFO 


%i3DNVso]?<^     "^AaaAiNnavw^ 


^^oxmrn"^  '^' 


^oxmm 


^^lUBRARYO^ 


^llIBRARYQc 


^Mnv3J0-^ 


^OfCAllFO/?/^^ 


^i!/0JllV3J0^^ 


^0FCAIIF0% 


"^^ommn"^ 


<^^mym//^_      ^lOSANCEli 


soi^^     '^^/smmi\ 


^^\^EUNIVER5'/^        v^lOSANCEl. 

O        il. 


At; 


\WEUNIVERy/A       ^10SANCEI%  -s:^UlBRARYac.       -s:^lLlBRARV 


<J^13QNVS01^ 


%a3AINn-3# 


^ojiTVDjo-^    %Qmyi 


AWEUNIVER%       ^lOSANCElfj>         ^OFCALIF0%.       ^OFCAilFO 


S   ICI^ 


mmimii 

m\w    ^oxmrni"^      ^mmm^    ^Mrnmi^ 


so 

I 


NVSOl^ 


C5 


NYSOl^ 


^10SANCEI% 


-<;J.UIBRARYQr 


>&AHvaani^ 


"^^^Aavaaii^ 


,^\^EUNlVERy/^       ^lOSANCafj'^ 


I1V3J0>^      ^^OJIlVDJO'f^  <ril33NVS01^       '^/SaaAINrt-JWV 


'ALIFO%        .^.OFCAIIFO/?/;. 


m 


^\WEUNIVEW/^ 


mwi"^    ^oxmmi^      ^mmiov^ 


^lOSANCflfj^ 

o 


%aMiNnmv^ 


m\m/^^^    ^losANCFifj-^ 


^aUIBRARYOc^       ^lUBRARYi?/' 


3NVS01^      %il3AlNn-3WV^         ^OJITVDJO^      '^.i/OJIlVDJO' 
JNIVERy/A        ^lOSANCElfj;>  .^OFCAIIFO%       aOF-CAIIFO% 

><rg  lOr-l    i\4S\|  l(L4^l 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY 
OF  THE  KAISER 

A  Study  of  His  Sentiments 
and    His    Obsession 

BY 

MORTON  PRINCE 


BOSTON:    RICHARD     G.    BADGER 

TORONTO:  THE  COPP  CLARK  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON:         T.      FISHER      UNWIN 

1915 


Copyright,  19 15,  by  Morton  Prince 
All  Rights  Reserved 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.  S.  A. 


SYNOPSIS 

I.     The  Kaiser's  Antipathy. 
II.     The  Kaiser's  Prerogatives. 

III.  The  Kaiser's  Divine  Right  De- 

lusion. 

IV.  The    German    Autocracy    and 

THE  Army. 
V.     The  Kaiser's  Sentiments. 
VI.     The      Kaiser's     Self-Regarding 

Sentiment. 
VII.     Aims  of  the  German  Democracy. 
VIII.     The  Real  Cause  of  the  Kaiser's 
Antipathy. 
IX.     The  Kaiser's  Antipathy  an  Ob- 
session AND  A  Defense  Reac- 
tion. 

The  Moral 


500413 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY 
OF  THE   KAISER 


THE    KAISER    TAKEN    UNAWARES. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 
THE  KAISER 

I 

THE   kaiser's  antipathy 

TN  the  consciousness  of  the  Kaiser  there 
^  is  nothing  that  is  more  dominant  than 
his  increasing  and  virulent  antipathy  to  a 
great  body  of  citizens  constituting  no  less 
than  one-third  of  his  empire — the  Social 
Democrats. 

We  have  all  read  of  the  Kaiser's  hatred 
of  the  party  known  as  the  Social  Demo- 
cratic Party.  We  have  read  the  epithets 
which  he  has  constantly  hurled  at  them, 
and  of  his  antipathy  to  their  creeds. 
'^Traitors/'  '^a  plague  that  must  be  ex- 
terminated," ''a  horde  of  men  unworthy 

7 


8       The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

to  bear  the  name  of  Germans,"  "foes  to 
the  country  and  empire,"  ''people  with- 
out a  country  and  enemies  of  religion," 
he  has  called  them. 

To  a  delegation  of  striking  miners  he 
said: 

For  me  every  Social  Democrat  is  synony- 
mous with  an  enemy  of  the  empire  and  of 
his  country.  If,  therefore,  I  believe  that 
there  are  any  Socialist  tendencies  in  the  move- 
ment [the  strike  of  100,000  men],  stirring 
up  to  unlawful  resistance,  I  shall  act  with 
merciless  rigor  and  bring  to  bear  all  the 
power  at  my  disposal — which  Is  great. 

Again : 

The  doctrines  of  the  Social  Democrats  are 
not  only  opposed  to  the  commandments  of 
God  and  Christian  morality  but  are  also  al- 
together unpractical,  being  equally  Injurious 
to  the  individuals  and  the  whole  community. 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser       9 

So  violent  is  the  hatred  of  the  Kaiser 
toward  this  party  that  he  even  has  thought 
it  might  come  to  suppressing  it  by  the 
army.  He  said  to  the  young  soldiers  at 
Potsdam: 

For  you  there  is  only  one  foe,  and  that  is 
my  foe.  In  view  of  our  present  Socialist 
troubles,  it  may  come  to  this,  that  I  command 
you  to  shoot  down  your  own  relatives, 
brothers,  and  even  parents,  in  the  streets, 
which  God  forbid;  but  then  you  must  obey 
my  orders  without  a  murmur. 

Why  so  much  feeling?  Why  such  re- 
current outbursts  of  anger  and  hatred 
against  a  political  party  which  in  num- 
bers is  twice  as  large  as  any  other  single 
party  in  the  empire,  a  party  which  in 
191 2  cast  4,250,000  votes  *  and  which  was 

*  The  total  vote  cast  was  12,207,000.  The  number  of 
Social  Democrats  elected  was  not  fairly  proportionate 
to  the  voting  strength  of  the  party  owing  to  the  pecu- 


lO     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

represented  in  the  German  Parliament  in 
1912  by  no  members,  the  representatives 

liar  election  laws  existing  in  the  different  states  of  Ger- 
many. Hence  ballot  reform  was  the  principal  imme- 
diate issue  of  the  party  before  the  war.  In  Prussia, 
for  example,  there  is  what  is  called  the  "three-class 
system."  The  voters  are  divided  into  three  classes  ac- 
cording to  the  amount  of  taxes  paid,  the  total  taxes 
being  divided  into  three  equal  parts.  "Then,  starting 
with  the  highest  taxpayers,  those  voters  whose  taxes 
total  the  first  third  of  taxes  paid  constitute  the  first 
class  of  electors.  They  are  the  wealthiest  men  and  nat- 
urally  are   smallest  in  numbers. 

"The  second  class  is  made  up  of  those  electors  who 
pay  taxes  equal  to  the  second  division.  Their  number 
is  a  little  larger.  The  third  class  is  made  up  of  aU 
the  rest  of  the  voters. 

"Each  class  elects  the  same  number  of  deputies  to  the 
Reichstag.  Obviously  the  respectable  middle  class  com- 
posed of  that  element  in  Continental  politics  known  as 
the  bourgeoisie  throws  its  vote  with  that  of  the  aris- 
tocracy against  the  people  at  large.  In  one  careful 
analysis  of  this  system  the  ratio  in  the  division  was 
roughly  as  follows:  one  voter  in  the  first  class;  thirty-two 
voters  in  the  second  class;  three  hundred  and  fifty  voters 
in  the  third  class. 

"Now  the  exclusive  gentleman  in  the  first  class  elected 
just  as  many  members  of  the  Reichstag  as  did  the  350 
workingmen  in  the  third  class,  or  the  thirty-two  well-to- 
do  business  men  in  the  second  class."  ("The  Kaiser," 
edited  by   Asa  Don   Dickenson,  p.    105.) 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     il 

of  over  21,000,000  people,   nearly  one- 
third  of  the  population? 

S.  p.  Orth  ("Socialism  and  Democracy  in  Europe") 
gives  various  instances  of  the  inequality  which  appears 
in  the  cities,  "In  Berlin  in  one  precinct  one  man 
paid  one-third  of  the  taxes  and  consequently  possessed 
one-third  of  the  legislative  influence  in  that  precinct. 
In  another  precinct  the  president  of  a  large  bank  paid 
one-third  of  the  taxes,  and  two  of  his  associates  paid 
another  third.  These  three  men  named  the  member  of 
the  Diet  from  that  precinct." 

In  Saxony  the  electorate  is  divided  into  four  classes 
according  to  their  income.  The  members  of  each  class 
have  respectively  1,  2,  3,  and  4  votes.  Consequently,  in 
1909  18,491  voters  of  the  fourth  class,  having  4  votes 
each,  cast  73,964  votes,  while  32,567  voters  of  the  first 
class  cast  only  33,567  votes. 

Corresponding  inequalities  of  representation  neces- 
sarily followed. 

One  result  of  the  election  laws  is  that  the  cities  where 
the  Social  Democrats  preponderate  have  very  small  rep- 
resentation, while  the  rural  districts  where  the  conser- 
vatives (Junkers)  are  a  majority  have  a  dispropor- 
tionately large  representation.  Thus  Greater  Berlin  with 
850,000  voters,  where  the  Social  Democrats  are  in  a  vast 
majority,  was  represented  in  the  Reichstag  by  only  eight 
members  while  the  same  number  of  voters  in  the  small 
rural  districts  were  represented  by  forty-eight  mem- 
bers. Again:  The  city  of  Berlin  in  1910  with  a  popu- 
lation of  2,000,000  was  governed  by  33,062  persons,  owing 
to  the  three-class  system  of  voting. 


12     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

These  are  strong  words  of  the  Kaiser's 
I  have  quoted.  They  are  not  mere  invec- 
tives uttered  during  the  heat  of  a  politi- 
cal campaign.  They  are  not  to  be  classed 
with  those  emotional  castigations  with 
which  political  stump-speech  orators, 
working  themselves  up  to  a  state  of  pas- 
sionate indignation,  flay  their  adversaries, 
and  which  are  promptly  forgotten  as  soon 
as  the  campaign  is  ended — albeit  the 
Kaiser  is  essentially  a  stump-speech  ora- 
tor. 

We  have  all  learned  not  to  take  seri- 
ously the  ephemeral  indignation  of  the 
political  orator.  But  the  Kaiser's  denun- 
ciation of  the  Social  Democrats  is  the 
expression  of  an  antipathy  which  is  fixed, 

It  may  also  be  pointed  out  that  the  4,250,000  votes 
cast  by  the  Social  Democrats  in  1912  do  not  represent 
the  whole  opposition  to  the  autocracy,  inasmuch  as  cer- 
tain liberal  groups,  the  progressives  and  the  people's 
party  cast  together   1,506,000  votes. 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser      13 

deep-rooted,  persistent,  and  is  a  part  of 
his  personality,  for  it  has  manifested  it- 
self in  the  form  of  recurrent  attacks  of 
anger  and  hatred  ever  since  he  came  to 
the  throne,  twenty-seven  years  ago.  It  is 
like  unto  an  obsessing  idea,  common 
enough,  which,  fixed  deep  down  in  the 
mind,  rises  in  consciousness  whenever  its 
object  presents  itself. 

Fixed  antipathies  are  always,  for  the 
psychologist,  objects  of  interesting  study, 
but  for  others,  even  in  an  Emperor,  they 
are  little  more  than  matters  of  intellectual 
curiosity  unless  the  antipathy  is  one  of 
practical  political  import,  one  that  affects 
the  policies  of  Government  and  the  course 
of  history. 

If  the  antipathy  of  the  Kaiser  were 
only  of  that  trivial  kind  common  to  many 
people,  which  is  manifested  as  a  dread 
of  snakes,  or  of  death,  or  other  banal  ob- 


14     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

ject,  its  study  would  be  of  little  practical 
interest  excepting  for  its  victim,  Wil- 
liam II.  himself,  although  the  revelation 
of  its  origin  and  meaning  would  give  an 
insight  into  one  component,  however  un- 
important, of  an  exalted  personality. 

The  periodical  recurrence  of  the  an- 
tipathy and  the  psychological  reactions  to 
which  it  gave  rise  would  probably  affect 
the  happiness  of  no  one  but  himself  and 
the  unhappy  members  of  his  family  who 
would  have  to  bear  the  brunt  of  it.  No 
one  is  interested  in  other  people's  symp- 
toms. 

But  it  is  different  when  such  a  recur- 
ring antipathy  is  of  a  political  nature. 
Then  by  a  study  of  the  underlying  causes 
of  this  obsessing  idea  we  not  only  can  ob- 
tain an  insight  into  important  components 
of  the  personality  of  a  great  historical 
character,  but  we  should  expect  to  find 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser      15 

the  true  motives  which  have  determined 
those  policies  of  Government  and  the 
course  of  history  which  have  been  the 
direct  result  of  the  antipathy. 

The  Kaiser's  hatred  of  the  Social 
Democrats  has  had  momentous  practical 
consequences.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  it 
has  been  more  than  any  other  single  fac- 
tor the  motive  which  has  determined  him 
to  maintain,  against  the  progressive  spirit 
of  modern  civilization,  the  present  auto- 
cratic system  of  government,  to  resist  all 
liberal  attempts  to  change  the  Constitu- 
tion so  as  to  give  responsible  representa- 
tive government  to  the  people  and  to  de- 
fend what  he  claims  as  his  prerogatives. 
It  has  determined  other  tyrannous  meas- 
ures which  have  suppressed  freedom  of 
speech  and  the  press  and  banefully  op- 
pressed the  liberty  of  the  German  people. 
I  refer  to  the  law  of  lese-majeste. 


1 6     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

This  law,  a  return  to  the  feudalism  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  is  the  means  the  Kaiser 
employs  to  punish  those  who  talk  back. 
He  may  insult  his  subjects,  call  them  all 
manner  of  names,  misrepresent  their  prin- 
ciples, their  purposes  and  ideals,  excite 
animosity  against  them  ''as  enemies  to  the 
country  and  religion,"  but  if  they  answer 
back  they  are  met  by  the  law  of  lese- 
majeste,  and  this  law  is  enforced,  as  every 
one  knows,  with  merciless  severity  to  sup- 
press political  opponents. 

Against  the  Democrats  the  law  has 
been  used  as  a  weapon  of  suppression, 
though  without  success.  Under  this  law 
statistics  showed  that  up  to  1898,  during 
only  the  first  decade  of  William  II. 's 
reign,  more  than  1,000  years  of  imprison- 
ment had  been  inflicted  upon  offenders. 
A  recent  responsible  writer  asserts  that 
up   to    1 914   the  sentences   had   reached 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     17 

30,000  years,  but  I  do  not  know  upon 
what  authority  these  figures  are  based. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  editors  of  So- 
cial Democratic  newspapers,  many  po- 
litical leaders  of  the  party,  and  writers 
for  the  Democratic  press  have  been 
among  those  who  have  served  terms  in 
prison  for  lese-majeste,  or  offense  against 
the  press  law. 

There  have  been  times  when  scarcely 
a  week  passed  without  three  or  four  trials. 
But  against  the  Social  Democratic  mem- 
bers of  the  Reichstag  when  making  use  of 
their  prerogatives  as  elected  representa- 
tives of  the  people,  this  law  has  not  been 
sufficient  to  satisfy  the  Kaiser's  animosity. 
So  on  one  occasion  when  they  refused  to 
rise  and  cheer  him,  in  response  to  a  de- 
mand, the  Kaiser  had  introduced,  through 
his  Chancellor,  a  bill  to  permit  the  crim- 
inal prosecution  of  these  delegates.     To 


1 8     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

its  credit,  be  it  said,  the  majority  refused 
to  permit  this  encroachment  upon  its 
rights. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  such  a  criminal 
law  as  lese-majeste  and  its  abuse  for  po- 
litical purposes  in  England  would  cost 
the  King  his  crown. 

To  this  antipathy  of  the  Kaiser  may 
also  be  traced  in  large  part  responsibility 
for  the  consolidation  of  the  autocratic 
and  military  party  in  Germany.  For, 
by  suppressing  the  political  power  of  the 
only  militant  party  that  has  opposed  this 
autocracy,  the  Kaiser  has  been  enabled 
to  solidify  his  power  and  intrench  him- 
self with  his  army  as  the  dominating  po- 
litical force  which  has  determined  the 
foreign  policies  of  the  empire. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  if  the  democracy 
had  been  in  power,  or  if  the  constitutional 
system  of  government  had  been  such  that 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     19 

the  Social  Democratic  Party,  in  and  out 
of  the  Reichstag,  could  have  made  its  in- 
fluence felt,  the  foreign  and  military  poli- 
cies and  methods  of  the  Government 
would  have  been  far  different  and  there 
would  have  been  no  war.  Germanism 
and  Pan-Germanism  would  not  have 
threatened  the  world.* 

*  Surprise  has  been  expressed  that  the  Social  Demo- 
crats, in  view  of  their  avowed  principles  and  their  plat- 
form, did  not  in  the  beginning  throw  their  influence 
against  the  war,  but  are  patriotically  supporting  the 
government.  In  other  words,  that  there  is  a  United 
P^atherland.  There  is  no  question  that  the  Social  Demo- 
crats were  bitterly  opposed  to  this  war  and  yet  they 
cast  their  111  votes  in  the  Reichstag  unanimously  in 
favor  of  the  war  budget,  but  it  was  after  war  had  been 
declared  by  the  Upper  House  and  the  Emperor. 

This  seems  on  the  face  of  the  facts  a  complete  re- 
versal of  the  Party  policy  and  yet  it  is  easily  under- 
stood. 

The  Social  Democrats,  though  opposed  to  militarism 
and  war,  are  first  and  all  the  time  patriots.  They 
have  always  declared  that  if  the  Fatherland  were  at- 
tacked they  would  rally  to  its  defense,  and  all  the  world 
knows  that  the  German  people  as  a  whole  have  been 
made  to  believe  that  the   Fatherland  was   attacked. 

In  1907  Bebel,  then  leader  of  the  Party,  declared  in 


20     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

More  than  this,  it  is  impossible,  I  be- 
lieve, for  any  one  to  study  the  internal 

a  debate  in  the  Reichstag  that  if  the  Fatherland  were 
attacked  even  he,  in  his  old  age,  would  "shoulder  a  mus- 
ket" in  its  defense.  And  in  the  next  Party  Convention 
he  declared: 

"I  said,  if  the  Fatherland  really  must  he  defended, 
then  we  will  defend  it.  Because  it  is  our  Father- 
land. It  is  the  land  in  which  we  live,  whose  lan- 
guage we  speak,  whose  culture  we  possess.  Because 
we  wish  to  make  this,  our  Fatherland,  more  beauti- 
ful and  more  complete  than  any  other  land  on  earth. 
We  defend  it,  therefore,  not  for  you  hut  against 
you." 

Likewise    Von    VoUmar    later    said    in    the    Bavarian 
Diet: 

"If  the  necessity  should  arise  for  the  protection 
of  the  realm  against  foreign  invasion,  then  it  will 
become  evident  that  the  Social  Democrats  love  their 
Fatherland  no  less  than  do  their  neighbors;  that 
they  will  as  gladly  and  heroically  offer  themselves 
to  its  defense.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  foolish 
notion  should  ever  arise  to  use  the  army  for  the  sup- 
port of  a  warring  class  prerogative,  for  the  defense  of 
indefeasible  demands,  and  for  the  crushing  of  those 
just  ambitions  which  are  the  product  of  our  times, 
and  a  necessary  concomitant  of  our  economic  and 
political  development, — then  we  are  of  the  firm  con- 
viction that  the  day  will  come  when  the  army  will 
remember  that  it  sprang  from  the  people,  and  that 
its  own  interests  are  those  of  the  masses." 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     21 

politics  of  Germany  without  arriving  at 
the  firm  conviction  that  the  elimination 

As  S.  P.  Orth,  from  whose  work  I  take  these  quota- 
tions, says,  "This  makes  their  position  very  clear." 

When  war  was  declared  the  position  which  the  Social 
Democrats  were  obliged  to  take  was  also  clear.  It  was 
not  a  question  of  opposing  the  war.  As  Patrick  Henry 
declared,  in  his  famous  speech  at  the  beginning  of  our 
own  Revolution,  "Gentlemen  may  cry  'Peace!  Peace!' 
But  there  is  no  Peace.  The  war  has  actually  begun." 
And  so  with  the  Social  Democrats,  it  was  only  a  ques- 
tion of  voting  supplies.  The  Social  Democrats  dis- 
claimed all  responsibility  for  the  war.  As  Deputy  Haase 
said  in  the  Reichstag  in  explanation  of  the  vote  of  his 
colleagues : 

"The  responsibility  for  this  calamity  falls  upon 
those  who  are  responsible  for  the  imperial  policies 
that  led  to  it.  We  absolutely  decline  all  responsi- 
bility. The  Social  Democrats  fought  this  policy 
with  all  their  might.  At  this  moment,  however,  the 
question  before  us  is  not  war,  or  no  war.  The  war 
is  here.  The  question  now  is  one  of  defence  of  the 
country.  Our  nation  and  the  future  of  its  liberty 
are  jeopardized  by  a  possible  victory  of  Russian 
despotism,  the  hands  of  which  are  stained  with 
blood  of  the  best  of  its  own  nation.  Against  this 
danger  it  is  our  duty  to  secure  the  culture  and  in- 
dependence of  our  land." 

And  the  Vorwaerts,  the  official  organ  of  the  Social 
Democrats,  on  July  30th,  just  before  the  declaration 
of  war,  announced: 


22     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

of  German  militarism,  for  which  the  war 
is  being  waged,  and  therefore  the  hope 

"We  are  opposed  to  militarism,  and  we  reaffirm 
our  opposition  to  monarchism,  to  which  we  have  al- 
ways been  opposed,  and  always  will  be.  We  have 
been  compelled  from  the  first  to  lead  a  bitter  strug- 
gle against  the  temperamental  wearer  of  the  crown. 
We  recognize,  however,  and  we  have  stated  it  re- 
peatedly, that  William  II.  has  proved  himself  to 
be  a  sincere  friend  of  peace  among  the  nations, 
particularly  in  later  years.  .  .  .  But  even  the 
strongest  character  is  not  entirely  free  from  influ- 
ence, and  we  regret  to  say  that  proofs  are  accumu- 
lating in  abundance  that  the  clique  of  war  shouters 
have  been  at  work  again  to  influence  the  govern- 
ment in  favor  of  the  devastation  of  the  whole  of 
Europe.   .    .    . 

"In  England  it  is  the  general  opinion  that  the 
German  Kaiser  in  his  capacity  as  the  ally  and  ad- 
viser of  Austria  was  the  arbiter  in  this  trouble  and 
had  it  in  his  power  to  let  peace  or  war  fall  from 
the  folds  of  his  royal  robes.  And  England  is  right. 
As  conditions  are,  William  II.  has  the  decision  in  his 
hands." 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  although  the  Social  Demo- 
crats feel  that  the  Kaiser  and  the  military  party  are  to 
blame  for  the  war,  they  also  necessarily  feel  that  as 
patriots  they  must  support  the  Fatherland  as  would  be 
the  case  with  any  party  in  any  country.  But  it  also 
follows  that  if  the  Democracy  had  been  in  control  of  the 
government  of  Germany  there  would  have  been  no  war. 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     23 

of  permanent  world's  peace,  must  rest 
upon  the  German  Democratic  Party. 
From  this  viewpoint,  the  study  of  the 
Kaiser's  antipathy  for  the  Social  Demo- 
crats offers  a  most  fruitful  psychological 
study. 

Why,  then,  I  repeat,  so  much  feeling 
when  the  Kaiser  thinks  of  the  Social 
Democratic  Party?  Why  such  hatred  of 
it?  Why  such  anger?  Why  such  a  per- 
sonal attitude? 

To  explain  it  on  the  ground  of  differ- 
ences in  political  principles,  as  a  politi- 
cal antipathy  intensely  expressed  in  terms 
of  an  intense  emotional  personality,  is  a 
superficial  and  inadequate  psychological 
explanation,  although  it  is  commonly 
satisfying  as  a  political  explanation.  The 
two  are  not  synonymous.  The  reasons 
for  this  distinction  will  appear  as  we  pro- 
ceed. 


24     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

If  the  party  represented  only  a  small 
band  of  criminal  agitators,  of  militant 
anarchists,  let  us  say,  who  sought  by  as- 
sassination and  terrorism  to  destroy  the 
existing  Government,  such  an  attitude  of 
mind  would  be  easily  comprehensible 
and  would  need  no  analysis.  But  the  So- 
cial Democratic  Party  in  1888,  on  the 
accession  of  William  IL,  on  the  basis  of 
ont  voter  in  every  five  of  the  population, 
represented  less  than  4,000,000  subjects, 
and  in  1912  over  21,000,000,  a  third  of 
the  total  population.*     It  is,  therefore, 

*  The  steady  growth  of  the  Social  Democratic  Party 
has  been  phenomenal  and  is  of  importance  in  the  bearing 
it  has  upon  the  future.  In  1871  the  party  cast  only 
124,000  votes  and  from  that  time  to  1912  there  has  been 
an  almost  continuous  increase,  as  may  be  seen  from  the 
following   table: 

1871    134,000 

1874    352,000 

1877    493,000 

1878    437,000 

1881    312,000 

1884    550,000 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     25 

representative  of  a  large  part  of  the  pub- 
lic opinion  of  the  empire,  and,  above  all, 
of  the  working  classes.  Indeed,  it  is  the 
largest  political  party  in  the  empire. 
Criminal  agitation  is,  therefore,  out  of 
the  question. 

In  other  countries  political  feeling  in 
times  of  crises  often  runs  high,  and  at 
times  statesmen,  rulers,  leaders  of  politi- 
cal parties  generally,  have  strong  political 
bias  and  feel  intensely  hostile  to  their  po- 
litical opponents ;  but  they  do  not  regard 
them  as  foes  of  their  country,  and  God, 
and  religion,  to  be  crushed  by  every  force 
in  the  power  of  the  Government;  and  they 
rarely  carry  their  hostility,   and  anger, 

1887  763,000 

1890  1,427,000 

1893  1,787,000 

1898  2,107,000 

1903  3,011,000 

1907  3,259,000 

1913  4,250,000 


26     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

and  hatred  into  social  and  industrial  life, 
as  has  been  the  case  with  the  German 
Emperor. 

Furthermore,  the  persistency  of  the 
Emperor's  antipathy  is  remarkable.  It  is 
like  an  obsession.  He  has  retained,  un- 
diminished, his  hatred  of  the  Social 
Democrats  from  his  accession  to  the  out- 
break of  the  war,  and  has  never  ceased 
to  angrily  stigmatize  them  with  such  emo- 
tional epithets  as  I  have  cited. 

Now  it  is  probable,  owing  to  a  psycho- 
logical law,  that  when  strong  emotion, 
out  of  all  apparent  proportion  to  the 
cause,  is  excited  by  some  object,  that  ob- 
ject has  struck  some  sentiment,  a  '^com- 
plex" of  ideas  and  emotions  deeply  rooted 
in  the  personality,  but  not  squarely  ad- 
mitted and  faced  by  consciousness.  Ex- 
amples of  this  we  see  every  day. 

A  strong  protectionist  inveighs  with 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     27 

intense  anger  against  the  principle  of  free 
trade  and  the  political  party  that  advo- 
cates this  principle  in  its  platform.  The 
reason  he  consciously  gives  is  the  eco- 
nomic disadvantage  which,  he  appre- 
hends, will  result  to  the  country  at  large. 
But  though  this  may  be  the  reason,  or 
rather  one  reason  for  his  political  opin- 
ion, it  is  not  the  real  reason  for  his  emo- 
tion— his  anger  and  his  invectives. 

These  are  due  to  the  fact  that  the  free- 
trade  doctrine  strikes  a  chord  within  him 
which  resonates  with  selfish  fear  for  his 
own  business  interests,  and  the  reaction 
of  this  chord  is  anger.  In  other  words, 
to  use  a  homely  phrase,  while  apparently 
speaking  from  the  viewpoint  of  political 
principles,  he  is  really  '^talking  out  of  his 
pocket."  But  he  does  not  squarely  face 
and  perhaps  is  only  half  conscious  or  en- 
tirely  unconscious    of    this    fact.      This 


28     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

selfish  viewpoint  is  his  "unconscious  at- 
titude of  mind." 

Now,  is  the  Kaiser's  antipathy  to  the 
Social  Democrats  merely  the  expression 
of  an  academic  disbelief  in  Marxian 
principles  of  Socialism  and  a  disbelief  in 
the  practicability  of  such  principles  if 
applied  by  the  State  to  political  govern- 
ment? Or  are  these  only  ostensible  rea- 
sons for  his  antipathy?  If  the  latter,  a 
study  of  the  Kaiser's  mind  ought  to  re- 
veal deep-rooted  sentiments  of  another 
kind  which  will  explain  his  emotional 
reaction.  But  in  that  case,  for  a  complete 
explanation,  we  must  inquire  what  there 
is  that  is  peculiar  in  the  political  tenets 
of  the  Social  Democracy  that  touches 
these  sentiments  and  excites  the  reaction. 
In  other  words,  it  is  a  question  of  the 
Why. 

These  questions  rise  above  a  banal  cu- 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     29 

riosity  to  inquire  into  a  peculiar  personal 
dislike  of  an  Emperor,  however  that 
might  be  justified  by  the  exalted  world- 
position  which  he  occupies.  They  are 
important  in  that,  if  pursued,  they  may 
lead  to  a  deeper  understanding  of  his 
personality,  and  they  may  unfold  both 
his  viewpoint  of  government  as  exempli- 
fied by  the  German  system  and  the  an- 
tagonistic viewpoint  of  the  German  De- 
mocracy, which  for  many  years  has  been 
striving  against  the  power  of  the  Em- 
peror to  force  its  ideals  and  aspirations 
upon  the  autocracy  that  rules  Ger- 
many. 

All  these  questions  are  involved  in  the 
psychology  of  the  personality  of  the 
Kaiser.  The  political  questions  are  in- 
volved, for  no  personality  can  be  under- 
stood apart  from  its  environment  to 
which  it  reacts,  and  which  is  largely  re- 


30     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

sponsible  for  the  formation  of  ^'senti- 
ments." 

The  sentiments  are  of  prime  and  fun- 
damental importance  in  the  formation  of 
a  personality.  I  use  the  term  ''senti- 
ments" in  a  restricted  psychological  sense 
and  not  in  accordance  with  popular 
usage.  I  shall  have  occasion  later  to  ex- 
plain how  sentiments  are  formed  after 
we  have  become  acquainted  with  some  of 
the  Kaiser's  mental  attitudes. 

Meanwhile  I  would  simply  explain  in 
justification  of  this  inquiry,  that  charac- 
ter depends  upon  the  psycho-physiologi- 
cal organization  of  ideas,  derived  in  the 
broadest  sense  from  life's  experiences, 
with  the  innate  primitive  instinctive  dis- 
positions to  behave  or  react  to  given  situ- 
ations (i.  e.,  to  react  to  the  environ- 
ment). 

Thus,  on  the  one  hand,  sentiments  are 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     31 

formed  which  characterize  our  attitude 
toward  life,  including  therein  our  per- 
sonal, social,  political,  and  industrial  re- 
lations to  the  world  about  us;  and,  on  the 
other,  the  inborn  natural  instincts  of  man 
are  harnessed,  controlled,  and  repressed, 
or  cultivated  and  given  free  rein.  Upon 
the  development  of  sentiments,  therefore, 
not  only  the  behavior  of  the  individual 
depends,  but  the  whole  social  organiza- 
tion. Of  course,  in  a  brief  article  of  this 
kind  we  shall  be  obliged  to  limit  our- 
selves to  a  few  of  the  sentiments  involved 
in  the  questions  placed  before  us  and 
therefore  to  a  very  limited  study  of  the 
Kaiser's  personality. 


II 

THE    kaiser's    prerogatives 

LET  us  go  back  to  the  year  1888, 
when  the  Kaiser  came  to  the  throne. 
In  his  very  first  speech  to  the  Prussian 
Diet  he  proclaimed  with  noticeable  em- 
phasis that  he  was  "firmly  resolved  to 
maintain  intact  and  guard  from  all  en- 
croachment the  chartered  prerogatives  of 
the  Crown."  {The  Kaiser,  edited  by 
Asa  Don  Dickenson,  page  113.)  It  was 
noticed  that  he  laid  marked  stress  on 
these  words,  so  that  it  was  publicly  com- 
mented upon  by  those  who  heard  him. 
This  intention  to  defend  his  prerogatives 
the  Kaiser  has  consistently  maintained 
ever  since,  and  more  than  once  has  pro- 
claimed. What  are  the  ''prerogatives" 
32 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     33 

about  which  the  Kaiser  took  the  very 
first  opportunity  to  warn  Germany  and 
about  which  he  has  been  so  tenacious? 
They  can  be  briefly  stated. 

In  the  first  place,  we  must  know  it  is 
the  Kaiser's  prerogative  not  to  be  respon- 
sible to  the  people  or  to  Parliament,  but 
only  to  himself.  He  does  not  derive  his 
power  from  either,  but  he  reigns  by  his 
own  right.  This  is  his  prerogative.  Fur- 
thermore, he  not  only  reigns,  but  it  is  his 
prerogative  to  govern.  The  King  of 
England  reigns,  but,  as  has  so  often  been 
said,' he  does  not  govern.  In  England 
the  responsibility  for  governing  rests  en- 
tirely with  the  Ministry,  which  in  prin- 
ciple is  only  a  select  committee  of  Par- 
liament. It  is  the  English  Parliament, 
therefore,  and  practically  the  elected 
House  of  Commons  that  governs. 

In  the  second  place  it  is  the  Kaiser's 


34     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

prerogative  to  appoint  a  Chancellor  to 
help  him  govern.  He  has  no  Cabinet, 
nor  Board  of  Advisors.  The  Chancellor 
is  responsible  only  to  the  Emperor.  Par- 
liament may  be  entirely  opposed  to  him, 
but  in  such  case  he  does  not  necessarily 
resign,  as  would  the  British  Prime  Min- 
ister, nor  is  it  the  customary  usage.  He 
may  not  have  been  a  member  of  Parlia- 
ment when  appointed.  The  Kaiser  alone 
may  dismiss  him,  as  he  dismissed  Bis- 
marck. The  Emperor  may  disregard  him 
and  his  advice,  if  he  likes;  so  that  in  prac- 
tice he  may  be  his  own  Chancellor,  as  it 
is  commonly  said  in  Germany  he  has  been 
ever  since  Bismarck's  dismissal  and  as 
Bismarck  foretold  would  be  the  case. 

A  third  prerogative  is  to  appoint  the 
Ministers,  the  heads  of  the  great  depart- 
ments— Navy,  Foreign  Affairs,  Colonies, 
&c.,    who    are    under    the    Chancellor. 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     35 

Thus  all  executive  power  resides  in  the 
Kaiser.  Parliament  has  none.  We  may 
say  it  is  the  Kaiser's  prerogative  to  be 
the  administration. 

A  fourth  prerogative  is  to  be  Com- 
mander in  Chief  of  the  Army  and  to  have 
absolute  authority  over  the  forces  of  the 
army  both  in  peace  and  in  war.  (Art. 
63  of  the  Constitution.)  It  is  his  pre- 
rogative to  "determine  the  numerical 
strength,  the  organization,  and  the  di- 
visional contingents  of  the  imperial 
army";  also  to  appoint  all  superior  of- 
ficers. (Art.  64.)  That  the  Kaiser  re- 
gards this  as  one  of  his  most  cherished 
prerogatives  the  world  well  knows. 

A  fifth  and  exceedingly  powerful  pre- 
rogative is  to  appoint  and  control  the 
seventeen  members  of  the  upper  house — 
the  Bundesrath,  or  Federal  Council — the 
most  powerful  upper  house  in  the  world. 


36      The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

The  Kaiser  thus  has  the  votes — only 
fourteen  being  required — to  defeat  any 
amendment  to  the  Constitution,  and  in 
practice  he  has  always  controlled  a  ma- 
jority of  the  Council,  which  has  been  the 
creature  of  the  Kaiser  throughout  its 
history.  With  the  consent  of  the  Council 
he  can  declare  war,  but,  as  the  Council 
is  a  lady  of  easy  consent,  this  limitation 
need  not  bear  hardly  and  the  wooing  need 
be  but  short  and  light. 

A  sixth  prerogative  is  to  initiate  all 
legislation,  although  indirectly,  through 
his  controlled  Federal  Council,  of  which 
the  Chancellor  is  President.  The  lower 
house,  the  Reichstag,  elected  by  the  peo- 
ple, cannot  initiate  legislation,  so  well  did 
Bismarck  fix  the  Constitution  for  the  ben- 
efit of  Prussia  and  the  Kaiser. 

All  measures  must  originate  in  the  up- 
per  house,   which   can   also   veto   them 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     37 

when  amended  in  the  Reichstag,  and  can 
dissolve  the  latter  (with  the  Kaiser's  con- 
sent) if  it  doesn't  like  its  ways.  (Think 
of  the  House  of  Lords  dissolving  the 
Commons!)  The  Kaiser  has  thus  very 
great  power  in  controlling  legislation. 
(With  almost  innumerable  parties,  none 
of  which  has  a  majority,  in  the  House, 
log-rolling  under  an  astute  Chancellor 
has  been  raised  to  a  fine  art  that  would 
make  an  American  State  Legislature 
blush  like  a  neophyte.) 

The  Reichstag,  however,  can  refuse  to 
vote  supplies  and  to  pass  measures  fa- 
vored by  the  Kaiser.  The  elected  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  can  thus  talk, 
resolve  and  criticise,  and  refuse  to  follow 
the  Kaiser  and  thus  create  a  public 
opinion  which  he  may  or  may  not  dare  to 
oppose,  but  they  can  do  little  more. 


Ill 

THE    kaiser's    divine    RIGHT    DELUSION 

FINALLY,  the  Kaiser  claims  that  his 
prerogative  to  govern  is  derived 
from  God,  granted  by  the  Almighty  to 
his  house,  the  house  of  HohenzoUern. 
This  is  far  from  being  meant  as  a  figure 
of  speech  or  mere  rhetoric,  or  an  allegori- 
cal expression  of  religious  responsibility 
for  duties  to  be  performed.  It  is  a  deep, 
all-abiding  belief  and  principle  of  ac- 
tion. 

It  is  difficult  for  us  Americans  of  the 
twentieth  century  fully  to  grasp  this  be- 
lief in  a  present-day  man  of  boasted  cul- 
ture, from  whom  we  expect  common 
sense.  We  may  laugh  at  it,  but  in  its 
38 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     39 

practical  consequences  it  is  no  laughing 
matter.  It  is  fundamental  to  the  Kai- 
ser's viewpoint  and  to  an  understanding 
of  his  attitude  toward  his  subjects  and 
the  world.  Another  sovereign  derives 
his  right  to  reign,  if  not  to  govern,  from 
the  Constitution  of  his  country,  which 
means  in  the  last  analysis  by  contract  with 
his  people. 

But  the  German  Emperor  refuses  to 
acknowledge  any  responsibility  to  the 
people,  or  any  dependence  upon  the  peo- 
ple, or  the  Constitution,  or  contract,  for 
his  right  to  govern.  He  derives  this  right 
directly  from  God.  Whatever  rights  and 
powers  the  people  possess  descend  from 
the  Kaiser,  who  grants  them  through  the 
Constitution;  the  rights  and  powers  of 
the  Kaiser  do  not  ascend  from  the  people, 
as  in  a  democracy. 

The     concentration     of     irresponsible 


40     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

hereditary  power  in  one  man  and  those 
appointed  by  him  is  plainly  an  autoc- 
racy. ^^The  Divine  right  of  Kings  to 
rule"  is  a  doctrine  dating  back  to  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  is  by  Americans 
naively  supposed  to  have  ended  nearly  a 
century  ago  with  the  dissolution  of  the 
^^Holy  Alliance,"  whose  designs  upon 
South  America  gave  rise  to  our  Monroe 
Doctrine  in  1823. 

This  doctrine  of  Divine  right,  then, 
is  one  of  the  prerogatives,  if  not  in  his 
mind  the  great  prerogative,  which  the 
Kaiser  announced  he  was  resolved  to  de- 
fend. And  it  does  not  belong  to  the  pres- 
ent Kaiser  alone,  but  was  possessed,  as 
he  claims,  by  his  long  line  of  ancestors 
of  the  House  of  Hohenzollern,  and  will 
descend  to  his  successors  of  this  house. 
It  is  the  prerogative  of  his  house.  Thus 
he  announced: 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     41 

It  is  the  tradition  of  our  house  that  we,  the 
Hohenzollerns,  regard  ourselves  as  appoint- 
ed by  God  to  govern  and  to  lead  the  people 
whom  it  Is  given  us  to  rule,  for  their  well- 
being  and  the  advancement  of  their  material 
and  intellectual  interests. 

And  again: 

I  look  upon  the  people  and  nation  handed 
on  to  me  as  a  responsibility  conferred  upon 
me  by  God:  and  that  it  is,  as  Is  written  In 
the  Bible,  my  duty  to  increase  this  heritage, 
for  which  one  day  I  shall  be  called  upon  to 
give  an  account;  those  who  try  to  interfere 
with  my  task  I  shall  crush. 

And  again: 

I  regard  my  whole  position  as  given  to  me 
direct  from  heaven,  and  that  I  have  been 
called  by  the  Highest  to  do  His  work,  by 
One  to  Whom  I  must  one  day  render  an 
account. 


42     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

This  claim  as  German  Emperor,  or  as 
King  of  Prussia,  has  been  announced 
again  and  again  by  the  Kaiser,  and  his 
words  have  been  quoted  by  the  press,  by 
magazine  writers  and  pamphleteers  and 
bookmakers  unto  weariness  of  the  reader. 

The  prerogatives  we  have  briefly  sum- 
marized are  imperial,  but  be  it  noted 
they  are  double-headed  in  that — mutatis 
mutandis — they  also  belong  to  William 
11.  as  King  of  Prussia  so  far  as  the  con- 
stitutional relations  of  the  kingdom  to 
the  empire  make  them  applicable. 

The  odd  notion  of  Divine  right  the 
Kaiser  picked  up  from  his  grandfather, 
William  I.,  who,  when  he  was  crowned 
King  of  Prussia  at  Konigsberg,  to  show 
he  was  above  the  Constitution  which  his 
predecessor  had  granted  the  people, 
raised  with  his  own  hands  the  crown 
from  the  altar,  "set  it  on  his  own  head. 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     43 

and  announced  in  a  loud  voice,  'I  receive 
this  crown  from  God's  hand  and  from 
none  other.'  " 

And,  referring  to  this  historical  inci- 
dent, the  present  Kaiser,  William  II.,  in 
a  speech,  now  historic,  at  the  same  place, 
said: 

And  here  my  grandfather,  again,  by  his 
own  right,  set  the  Prussian  crown  upon  his 
head,  once  more  distinctly  emphasizing  the 
fact  that  it  was  accorded  him  by  the  will  of 
God  alone,  and  not  by  Parliament  or  by  any 
assemblage  of  the  people  or  by  popular  vote, 
and  that  he  thus  looked  upon  himself  as  the 
chosen  Instrument  of  Heaven,  and  as  such 
performed  his  duties  as  regent  and  sovereign. 

From  a  psychological  point  of  view,  it 
does  not  matter — any  more  than  it  sig- 
nified anything  to  the  Kaiser  and  his 
grandfather — that,   as  a  matter  of  fact, 


44     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

the  first  ruling  Hohenzollern  of  Bran- 
denburg, Elector  Frederick  I.,  acquired 
his  title  to  the  Electorate  by  taking  from 
King  Sigismund  of  Hungary,  in  141 1,  a 
mortgage  on  the  province  (the  nucleus  of 
modern  Prussia)  as  security  for  a  loan 
to  that  hard-up  potentate  of  about  one 
hundred  thousand  gulden.  A  little  later 
he  foreclosed  the  mortgage  and  took  title 
— a  rather  poor  title  at  that,  as  there  was 
already  a  mortgage  on  the  property  which 
it  was  convenient  for  Sigismund  to  repu- 
diate. Perhaps  royal  second  mortgages 
— like  marriages — are  made  in  Heaven, 
and  thus  they  become  "Divine  Rights."  * 
What  does  psychologically  matter  is 
that  the  present  Kaiser  has  persuaded 
himself,  forgetting  all  about  this  business 
transaction,  that  his  early  Hohenzollern 

*  In    1701    Elector    Frederick    III.    took   the    title    of 
(first)  King  of  Prussia  as  Frederick  I. 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     45 

Shylock  (in  foreclosing  the  mortgage) 
"felt  within  himself  the  call  to  journey 
to  this  land"  of  Brandenburg — plainly  a 
Divine  call — and  "was  convinced  that  the 
task  [of  governing]  was  given  him  from 
above."  (Kaiser's  speech,  Feb.  3,  1899.) 
What  counts  psychologically  is  that 
the  Kaiser  believes  that  a  Divine  right 
to  rule  is  his  prerogative.  How,  in  this 
age,  a  man  who  has  shown  such  marked 
ability  in  certain  directions  can  be  such 
a  fool — I  mean  psychologically,  of 
course — as  to  persuade  himself  to  believe 
such  stuff,  is  another  story  that  would 
make  an  interesting  psychological  study 
in  itself,  and  in  the  last  analysis  could 
probably  be  traced  to  subconscious 
wishes  which  have  produced  this  con- 
scious delusion,  just  as  such  subconscious 
processes  determine  the  delusions  of  in- 
sane people. 


46     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

Our  conscious  thoughts  are  much  more 
determined  by  subconscious  processes,  of 
which  we  are  unaware,  than  we  realize. 

One  great  popular  delusion  is  that  our 
minds  are  more  exact  logical  instruments 
than  they  really  are,  and  we  stand  in  awe 
of  the  minds  of  great  men,  thinking  that 
because  they  are  superior  in  certain  direc- 
tions, therefore  they  are  superior  in  all 
other  directions  of  their  activities  where 
they  claim  superiority;  whereas,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  a  man  may  be  eminently  supe- 
rior in  certain  fields  of  mental  activity 
and  psychologically  a  perfect  fool-thinker 
and  fool-performer  in  other  fields. 

Helmholtz  said  of  the  eye  that  it  was 
such  an  imperfect  optical  instrument 
that  if  an  instrument  maker  should  send 
him  an  optical  instrument  so  badly  made 
he  would  refuse  to  accept  it  and  return 
it  forthwith.     He  might  have  said  the 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     47 

same  thing  of  the  human  mind.  It  is  a 
very  imperfect  instrument  of  thought. 
All  we  can  say  of  it  is,  that  though  a  poor 
thing,  it  is  the  best  we  can  get.  The 
deeper  insight  we  get  into  the  mechanism 
of  the  human  mind,  the  poorer  thing  it 
appears  as  an  instrument  of  precision. 

This  Divine  Right  delusion  is  psy- 
chologically interesting  in  that  it  very 
closely  resembles  and  behaves  like  the 
delusions  characteristic  of  the  mental  dis- 
ease paranoia.  This  is  not  to  say — indeed 
it  would  be  absurd  to  say  as  some  have 
said — that  the  Kaiser  is  afflicted  with 
paranoia.  But  it  is  true  that  in  normal 
people  we  find  the  prototypes  of  mental 
processes  observed  in  abnormal  mental 
conditions.  The  essential  characteristic  of 
paranoia  is  a  systematized  delusion:  that 
is,  some  belief  into  which  all  sorts  of  facts 
of  the  environment  are  interwoven  and 


48     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

through  which  such  events,  casual  actions 
of  other  people  and  their  motives  are  in- 
terpreted. Thus,  an  insane  person  may 
imagine  he  is  the  object  of  persecution 
and  then  proceed  to  interpret  any  kind  of 
act  of  others,  really  unrelated  to  himself, 
through  this  belief,  imagining  that  it  is 
directed  towards  the  end  of  persecuting 
him.  Or  a  paranoiac  may  imagine  that 
he  is  the  divine  emissary  of  God  and  then 
interpret  one  hundred  and  one  everyday 
events  of  life  as  divine  messages  to  him- 
self. 

In  normal  people  we  see  the  prototype 
of  such  a  delusion  in  the  form  of  a  mildly 
fixed  idea  which  leads  a  person  to 
wrongly  interpret  other  people's  motives 
and  acts.  You  may  say,  if  you  like,  that 
he  believes  such  and  such  a  thing  because 
he  wishes  to,  or  because  of  some  firmly 
fixed  belief  through  which  he  interprets 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     49 

it.  The  difference  between  the  normal 
and  abnormal  person  is  that  the  former 
can,  if  he  desires  and  the  truth  is  properly 
presented,  change  his  belief;  the  abnor- 
mal person  cannot. 

It  would  be  an  extravagance  to  say 
that  the  Kaiser's  delusion  is  anything 
more  than  a  normal  fixed  idea  which  he 
could  change  if  he  wished  to.  But  this 
fixed  idea  is  so  strong,  so  deeply  rooted 
in  his  personality,  and  so  directly  the  ex- 
pression of  a  cherished  and  cultivated 
wish,  conscious  or  subconscious,  that  it 
dominates  his  interpretation  of  facts 
which  to  an  ordinary  person  flatly  contra- 
dict it.  It  leads  him  to  entirely  ignore 
both  palpable  facts,  such  as  the  purchase 
with  cold  cash,  by  his  ancestor,  of  the 
throne,  or  more  exactly,  electorate  of 
Brandenburg,  and  universally  accepted 
understandings  of  the  relation  of  God  to 


50     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

the  worldly  affairs  of  men — so  universally 
accepted  that  they  have  passed  into  the 
common-sense  of  mankind.  We  may  say, 
paraphrasing  the  words  of  a  subconscious 
personality  known  as  "Sally"  in  a  case 
of  multiple  personality  describing  the  at- 
titude of  mind  of  one  of  her  other  selves: 
"There  are  so  many  things  he  cannot  or 
will  not  see.  He  holds  to  certain  beliefs 
and  ideas  with  unwearying  patience.  It 
makes  no  difference  that  the  facts  are  all 
against  him.  He  still  ignores  the  facts, 
still  idealizes  himself  and  his  preroga- 
tives." 

The  Kaiser's  fixed  idea  is,  according  to 
psychological  laws,  determined  by  wishes 
— his  wish  to  be  sole  and  autocratic  ruler 
of  Prussia  and  the  Empire,  his  wish  to 
be  the  sole  arbiter  and  director  of  the 
imperial  destinies,  his  wish,  "considering 
himself  the  instrument  of  the  Lord,  with- 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     51 

out  heeding  the  views  and  opinions"  and 
will  of  his  subjects  to  ''go  his  way";  his 
wish  to  decide  everything,  like  a  patri- 
arch for  the  people,  and  to  treat  them  like 
children;  his  wish  to  be  looked  up  to  as 
the  supreme  power — all  these  desires  de- 
termine in  him  the  belief  that  he  is  the 
"anointed  of  the  Lord,"  a  ruler  by  Divine 
authority.  For  only  by  such  authority 
could  he  logically  find  justification  for 
the  assumption  of  such  powers  and  the 
fulfillment  of  his  desires.  In  other  words, 
through  the  acceptance  of  the  Divine 
Right  Delusion  he  finds  a  means  for  the 
fulfillment  of  his  wishes.  And  curiously 
enough,  but  still  according  to  psycholog- 
ical laws,  this  fixed  idea  with  its  powerful 
instinct  of  self-assertion  has  awakened  in 
his  junker  and  militaristic  supporters 
sentiments  of  self-abasement  through 
which  they  yield  submissively  to  this  as- 


52     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

sumed  prerogative  of  the  Kaiser  and 
adopt  an  attitude  of  Divinity  Worship. 
Thus  we  have  a  politico-religious  cult  in 
which  the  Kaiser  is  the  Godhead.  And 
thus  we  have  wishes  conscious  and  sub- 
conscious, but  working  subconsciously, 
making  a  fool — psychologically  speaking 
— of  the  Kaiser. 

The  most  curious  part  of  this  whole  Di- 
vine Right  business  is  that  in  Germany, 
with  all  its  "Kultur,"  there  has  been 
scarcely  one  single  voice  among  all  the 
people  of  Germany  publicly  to  deny  this 
claim,  excepting  the  voice  of  the  Social 
Democracy;  or  if  there  has,  it  has  been 
like  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness — or 
perhaps  from  behind  prison  bars,  where 
such  rashness  brought  the  prisoner,  con- 
demned under  the  feudal  law  of  lese-ma- 
jeste.  We  shall  presently  see  what  the 
German  democracy  thinks  about  it. 


IV 

THE  GERMAN  AUTOCRACY  AND  THE  ARMY 

THE  practical  upshot  of  this  whole 
German  system  of  government,  in 
which  imperial  prerogatives  and  an  im- 
potent opera  boufife  Reichstag  are  essen- 
tial ingredients,  is  that  the  Kaiser  with 
his  Chancellor  and  the  Ministers  of  the 
several  departments  (Foreign  Affairs, 
Navy,  Post  Office,  &c.),  a  bureaucracy 
responsible  only  to  the  Kaiser,  constitute 
an  autocracy  independent  of  Parliament 
and  the  voters.  Consequently  the  Gov- 
ernment is  intended  to  be  and  is  for  the 
State,  by  the  State,  not  of  the  people,  by 
the  people. 

The  Kaiser's  point  of  view  as  to  his 

53 


54     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

own  place  in  the  State  is  shown  by  some 
of  his  sayings :  ''There  is  only  one  master 
in  this  country — I  am  he  and  I  will  not 
tolerate  another."  ''There  is  no  law  but 
my  law;  there  is  no  will  but  my  will," 
he  told  his  soldiers,  and,  "The  King's 
will  is  the  highest  law,"  he  wrote  in  the 
Golden  Book  of  Munich. 

And  so,  as  a  German  Professor,  Lud- 
wig  Gurlitt,  has  said: 

He  regards  his  people,  the  masses,  as  chil- 
dren not  yet  of  age,  and  thinks  the  Govern- 
ment competent  to  prescribe  the  course  of 
their  social  and  cultural  development — a  pro- 
found and  fatal  mistake  ...  a  mediaeval 
idea ! 

Autocracy  makes  for  efficiency,  but  it 
also  makes  for  the  suppression  of  the  as- 
pirations of  the  people  and  self-govern- 
ment.    But  if  the   Kaiser,   the  bureau- 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     55 

cracy,  and  an  emasculated  Parliament 
were  the  whole  system  of  government,  au- 
tocracy would  be  incomplete.  The  sys- 
tem would  crumble  away  as  by  an  earth- 
quake when  democracy  became  success- 
ful at  the  polls. 

The  system,  therefore,  must  be  sup- 
ported by  power  of  some  kind.  Without 
power  behind  the  throne,  or  behind  any 
government,  autocratic,  monarchical,  or 
republican,  that  government  would  fall 
at  the  first  shock  of  internal  conflict.  In 
a  real  republic  that  power  is  the  will  of 
the  people — commonly  called  public 
opinion.  But  we  have  seen  that  the  Ger- 
man system  does  not  rest  upon  public 
opinion.  Upon  what,  then?  William 
II.,  indeed,  as  the  'instrument  of  the 
Lord,"  has  flaunted  his  own  defiance  of 
public  sentiment. 

Five  years  ago  he  said: 


56     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

Considering  myself  as  the  Instrument  of 
the  Lord,  and  without  heeding  the  views  and 
opinions  of  the  day,  I  go  my  way. 

Behind  the  German  autocracy  is  the 
army,  under  the  absolute  control  of  the 
Kaiser.  Upon  the  army  the  Kaiser  de- 
pends for  the  security  of  his  rule.  The 
army  is  the  power  behind  the  throne. 

As  one  writer  remarks: 

"The  army  is  the  foundation  of  the  social 
structure  of  the  empire." 

The  Kaiser,  on  one  occasion,  declared: 

With  grave  anxiety  I  placed  the  crown 
upon  my  head.  Everywhere  I  met  doubt, 
and  the  whole  world  misjudged  me.  But  one 
had  confidence  In  me;  but  one  believed  in  me 
— that  was  the  army.  And  relying  upon 
the  army,  and  trusting  in  God,  I  began  my 
reign,   knowing  well  that  the   army  is   the 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     57 

main  tower  of  strength  for  my  country,  the 
main  pillar  supporting  the  Prussian  throne, 
to  which  God  in  His  wisdom  had  called  me. 


He  said  in  1891 : 

The  soldier  and  the  army,  not  parliamen- 
tary majorities  and  decisions,  have  welded 
together  the  German  Empire.  My  confi- 
dence Is  in  the  army — as  my  grandfather 
said  at  Coblenz:  "These  are  the  gentlemen 
on  whom  I  can  rely." 

And  again,  asserting  his  belief  in  mili- 
tary force  as  the  means  upon  which  the 
empire  must  rely  to  accomplish  its  ends 
at  home  and  abroad,  he  quoted  the  say- 
ing of  Frederick  William  I. : 

If  one  wishes  to  decide  something  in  this 
world,  it  is  not  the  pen  alone  that  will  do  it 
if  unsupported  by  the  power  of  the  sword. 


58      The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

In  his  first  official  act  as  Emperor, 
(June  15,  1888,)  he  declared: 

The  absolutely  inviolable  dependence  upon 
the  war  lord  (Kriegsherr)  is,  in  the  army, 
the  inheritance  which  descends  from  father 
to  son,  from  generation  to  generation.  .  .  . 
So  we  are  bound  together,  I  and  the  army. 
Thus  we  are  born  for  one  another,  and  thus 
we  will  hold  together  in  an  indissoluble  bond, 
in  peace  or  storm,  as  God  wills. 

This  close  connection  between  the 
army  and  the  Prussian  Kings,  as  Profes- 
sor Gauss  points  out,  is  a  tradition  which 
William  11.  has  sedulously  maintained, 
just  as  we  have  seen  he  has  maintained 
the  traditions  of  a  Divine  right  to  rule. 


THE   kaiser's  sentiments 

WITH  the  meaning  of  all  these  pre- 
rogatives in  mind,  let  us  look  a 
bit  more  closely  into  the  psychology  of 
the  Kaiser.  In  doing  so  let  us  bear  in 
mind  that  in  the  doctrine  of  Divine  right 
we  see  developed  in  the  Kaiser  a  strong 
sentiment  of  the  most  personal  kind,  of 
birthright,  of  self-interest.  And,  be- 
sides this,  in  all  the  other  prerogatives 
which  the  Kaiser  has  so  defiantly  re- 
solved to  defend  against  all  encroach- 
ments, we  also  have  sentiments  of  self- 
interest — sentiments  of  possession,  of 
rights  pertaining  to  self. 

All  these  sentiments  are  bound  up  with 

59 


6o     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

a  consciousness  of  his  own  personality 
(a  ^'self-regarding"  sentiment),  with  his 
ego.  And  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
ego,  of  consciousness  of  his  ego,  in  his 
personality.  Perhaps  his  enemies  would 
say,  as  was  said  of  the  great  orang-utan, 
Bimi,  in  Kipling's  tale — Bimi,  who  also 
wished  to  crush  his  enemies  in  furious 
outbursts  of  jealous  rage — ''there  is  too 
much  ego  in  his  cosmos." 

Now,  as  a  matter  of  psychology,  "senti- 
ments," as  I  have  already  said,  are  of  tre- 
mendous importance  as  factors  in  per- 
sonality and  as  forces  which  determine 
attitudes  of  mind,  reactions  of  the  per- 
sonality to  the  environment  and  conduct. 

Upon  the  formation  of  "sentiments" 
the  character  of  a  person  and  his  social 
behavior  fundamentally  depend.  And  by 
the  formation  of  sentiments  in  the  course 
of  the  individual's  mental  development 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     6i 

the  primitive  innate  instincts  of  human 
nature  are  harnessed  and  brought  under 
control  and  their  impulses  given  proper 
direction.  Thus  these  primitive  impulses 
are  repressed  or  cultivated  according  to 
the  ideals  of  society.  Otherwise,  driven 
by  the  impulses  of  our  innate  instincts, 
we  should  all  run  amuck  through  society. 

We  must  understand,  then,  a  little 
more  precisely  what,  psychologically  and 
technically  speaking,  a  sentiment  is.  I 
am  not  using  the  word  in  the  popular 
sense.  Without  going  into  the  psychol- 
ogy deeply,  we  may  say  that  a  sentiment 
is  an  idea  of  something,  as  its  object,  or- 
ganized or  associated  with  one  or  more 
instinctive  emotions  which  give  the  idea 
impulsive  force. 

In  the  personality  of  every  human 
being — and  the  same  is  true  of  animals — 
there  are  a  number  of  emotional  instincts. 


62     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

These  instincts  are  characterized  by  a 
particular  emotion  which  each  possesses, 
and  may  be  named  indifferently,  for  our 
present  purposes,  either  after  the  emotion 
itself  or  after  the  biological  aim  which 
the  instinct  serves. 

Every  person,  for  instance,  possesses  a 
pugnacity  instinct  of  which  the  emotion 
is  anger.  Other  such  instincts  are  fear, 
parental  feeling,  disgust,  curiosity,  self- 
assertion,  self-abasement,  reproduction, 
and  so  on.  All  such  instincts  have  a  bio- 
logical function  in  that  they  serve  either 
to  protect,  like  anger  and  fear,  the  indi- 
vidual (and  the  species)  from  danger 
against  its  enemies  and  prevent  its  ex- 
tinction, or,  like  the  parental  and  repro- 
ductive instincts,  serve  to  perpetuate  the 
species,  or  like  the  curiosity  instinct,  to 
acquire  knowledge  and  learn  by  experi- 
ence, and  so  on.     Emotion,  as  the  very 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     63 

word  itself  indicates,  moves  us — i.  e.,  it  is 
a  force  that  impels  toward  some  end  and 
the  emotion  of  each  instinct  carries  it  to 
fulfillment. 

When  an  emotion — i.  e.,  instinct — has 
been  excited  by  some  object,  whether  it 
be  a  material  thing,  like  a  snake,  or  an- 
other person,  or  something  mental — an 
idea  of  a  material  object,  or  a  thought  as 
of  a  possible  danger  to  the  individual, 
or  of  a  political  principle — the  emotion 
may  become  so  associated  with  and  bound 
to  the  object  that  whenever  the  object  is 
presented  in  consciousness  the  emotion 
is  excited.  This  particularly  happens 
when  the  emotion  has  been  frequently 
excited  by  the  same  object. 

Thus  a  person  may  acquire  a  fear  of 
snakes,  or  thunderstorms,  or  hatred  of 
a  person.  Two  or  more  emotional 
instincts  may  be  organized  in  this  way 


64     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

into  a  system  about  a  given  idea  as 
their  object. 

Now,  when  an  idea  always  excites  one 
or  more  emotions,  so  that  the  idea  is  al- 
ways accompanied  by  the  same  emotional 
reaction,  the  whole  is  called  a  sentiment. 
Thus  we  have  the  sentiment  of  love  of 
a  mother  for  her  child,  of  hatred  of  a 
tyrant,  of  disgust  for  a  vicious  person,  of 
pride  of  self,  and  so  on. 

Practically,  psychological  analysis 
shows  that  the  organization  of  a  senti- 
ment is  more  complicated  than  such  a 
simple  arrangement  would  make  it,  and 
that  the  sentiment  is  deeply  and  widely 
rooted  in  a  number  of  ramifying,  pre- 
vious mental  experiences  and  innate  emo- 
tions. This  is  expressed  by  popular  lan- 
guage when  we  say  a  given  sentiment  is 
deeply  rooted  in  a  person's  personality. 
The  emotions  serve  to  give  their  ideas 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     65 

great  intensity  and  driving  force  for  ac- 
tion. 

It  is  held  by  some  psychologists  that  a 
sentiment  always  includes  innately  organ- 
ized systems  of  several  emotions  so  that 
a  different  emotion  is  necessarily  excited 
according  to  the  situation  in  which  the 
object  presents  itself.  Thus  a  hated  per- 
son will  awaken  in  us  joy,  or  sorrow,  or 
anger,  or  fear,  according  to  whether  he 
suffers  injury,  or  escapes  destruction,  or 
prospers,  or  is  likely  to  get  the  better  of 
us. 

In  accordance  with  this  view  a  senti- 
ment is  an  organized  system  of  emotions 
centred  about  an  idea  of  an  object.  The 
mechanism,  as  I  have  stated  it,  however, 
is  sufficiently  accurate  for  our  purpose. 

With  these  general  principles  in  mind, 
one  has  only  to  read  the  Kaiser's  speeches 
to  recognize  that  his  ideas  of  himself  and 


66     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

of  his  prerogatives,  which  he  jealously 
defends,  are  organized  with  instinctive 
emotions  of  great  intensity — emotions  be- 
longing to  greed  of  possession,  and  pride, 
and  self-assertion,  (or  self-display,)  and 
pugnacity,  and  vengeful  emotion,  and 
jealousy.  These  ideas  are  therefore  sen- 
timents deeply  fixed  and  organized  in  his 
personality,  and  given  great  driving  force 
by  their  emotions,  which  tend  to  carry 
them  to  activity  and  fruition. 

Hence  it  is  that  the  Kaiser's  sentiments 
of  himself  and  his  prerogatives  exhibit 
great  intensity  of  feeling  and  determine 
his  conduct  to  assert  his  rights  and  to  ex- 
ercise and  enjoy  them  by  being  his  own 
Chancellor  and  ruling  the  army  and  em- 
pire, and,  if  need  be,  to  defend  them  most 
vigorously. 


VI 

THE      kaiser's     self-regarding     SENTI- 
MENT 

BUT  we  must  leave  these  traits  of  the 
Kaiser's  personality  for  the  imme- 
diate issue  of  our  study.  One  sentiment, 
however,  ought  to  be  considered  more 
intimately  if  certain  of  his  most  notori- 
ous peculiarities  are  to  be  understood.  I 
refer  to  what  has  been  called  the  ^'self- 
regarding"  sentiment. 

Every  person  possesses  such  a  senti- 
ment, although  it  varies  according  to  the 
ingredients  that  enter  into  it.  Professor 
William  McDougall,  one  of  the  most 
eminent  of  contemporary  psychologists, 
has  analyzed  this  sentiment,  and  at- 
67 


68     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

tributes  it  to  the  biological  instincts  of 
self-assertion  and  self-abasement  com- 
pounded in  varying  proportions  with  the 
idea  of  self.  (These  instincts  are  com- 
mon to  animals  as  well  as  men  and  have 
a  biological  end.)  We  thus  get  different 
types  of  self. 

When  the  first  instinct  of  self-asser- 
tion— also  called  self-display — with  its 
emotion  of  positive  self-feeling  is  the 
chief  instinct,  then  we  have  a  type  in 
which  pride  is  the  main  characteristic  of 
the  idea  of  self.  When  the  second  in- 
stinct (with  the  emotion  of  negative  self- 
feeling)  is  happily  blended  in  the  senti- 
ment, we  have  a  type  of  self-respect. 

To  illustrate  the  former  type.  Pro- 
fessor McDougall  (Social  Psychology) 
draws  the  character  of  an  imaginary 
Prince  in  whom  the  first  instinct  is  the 
dominating  one.     It  is  interesting  to  see 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     69 

how  perfectly  his  picture  represents  the 
Kaiser: 


Imagine  the  son  of  a  powerful  and  foolish 
Prince  to  be  endowed  with  great  capacities 
and  to  have  in  great  strength  the  instinct  of 
self-display  with  its  emotion  of  positive  self- 
feeling.  Suppose  that  he  is  never  checked, 
or  corrected,  or  criticised,  but  Is  allowed  to 
lord  it  over  all  his  fellow-creatures  without 
restraint.  The  self-regarding  sentiment  of 
such  a  child  would  almost  necessarily  take 
the  form  of  an  unshakable  pride,  a  pride 
constantly  gratified  by  the  attitudes  of  defer- 
ence, gratitude,  and  admiration  of  his  social 
environment;  the  only  dispositions  that  would 
become  organized  In  this  sentiment  of  pride 
would  be  those  of  positive  self-feeling  or 
elation  and  of  anger  (for  his  anger  would 
be  Invariably  excited  when  any  one  failed  to 
assume  toward  him  the  attitude  of  subjection 
or  deference). 


70     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

His  self-consciousness  might  be  intense  and 
very  prominent,  but  it  would  remain  poor 
in  content;  for  he  could  make  little  progress 
in  self-knowledge;  he  would  have  little  occa- 
sion to  hear,  or  to  be  interested  in,  the  judg- 
ments of  others  upon  himself;  and  he  would 
seldom  be  led  to  reflect  upon  his  own  char- 
acter and  conduct.  The  only  influences  that 
could  moralize  a  man  so  endowed  and  so 
brought  up  would  be  either  religious  teach- 
ing, which  might  give  him  the  sense  of  a 
power  greater  than  himself  to  whom  he  was 
accountable,  or  a  very  strong  natural  en- 
dowment of  the  tender  emotion  and  its  al- 
truistic impulse,  or  a  conjunction  of  these  two 
influences. 

A  man  in  whom  the  self-regarding  senti- 
ment had  assumed  this  form  would  be  in- 
capable of  being  humbled — his  pride  could 
only  be  mortified;  that  is  to  say,  any  display 
of  his  own  shortcomings  or  any  demonstra- 
tion of  the  superiority  of  another  to  himself 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     71 

could  cause  a  painful  check  to  his  positive 
self-feeling  and  a  consequent  anger,  but  could 
give  rise  neither  to  shame  nor  to  humilia- 
tion, nor  to  any  affective  state,  such  as  ad- 
miration, gratitude,  or  reverence,  in  which 
negative  self-feeling  plays  a  part.  And  he 
would  be  indifferent  to  moral  praise  or 
blame;  for  the  disposition  of  negative  self- 
feeling  would  have  no  place  in  his  self- 
regarding  sentiment;  and  negative  self-feel- 
ing, which  renders  us  observant  of  the  atti- 
tude of  others  toward  ourselves  and  recep- 
tive toward  their  opinions,  is  one  of  the  es- 
sential conditions  of  the  influence  of  praise 
and  blame  upon  us. 

The  inordinate  cultivation  in  the 
Kaiser  of  the  self-regarding  sentiment 
with  the  unalloyed  instinct  of  self-dis- 
play also  explains,  psychologically,  the 
manifestations  of  certain  traits  which 
have   amazed   the  world.      I   mean   his 


72     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

colossal  vanity  as  manifested  by  his  fond- 
ness for  dressing  himself  up  in  all  sorts 
of  uniforms  and  constantly  changing  his 
costumes — on  occasions  as  often  as  five 
or  six  times  in  a  single  day,  and  even  dur- 
ing the  course  of  a  Court  reception — his 
fondness  for  having  himself  photo- 
graphed or  painted,  or  his  portrait  made 
as  busts,  lithographs,  medals,  and  bas-re- 
liefs, always  posing  in  heroic  attitudes  for 
the  purpose. 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  snap- 
shots of  the  Kaiser  with  the  posed  pho- 
tographs (there  are  thousands  of  photo- 
graphs of  him),  and  not  only  as  himself, 
but  in  the  heroic  character  of  a  Roman 
Emperor  mounted  on  a  charger,  and 
again  in  imitation  of  the  Emperor  Char- 
lemagne. 

It  explains  his  self-assumption  to  be  an 
artist — a  painter,  a  musician,  a  composer, 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     73 

an  architect,  an  art  critic,  a  preacher,  and 
Heaven  knows  what  else.  It  also  gives  a 
psychological  explanation  of  his  inability 
to  stand  personal  criticism,  and  for  his 
vain  obtuseness  in  not  being  able  to  un- 
derstand how  any  one  should  not  look 
upon  him  excepting  with  reverent  awe. 
One  of  the  authors  of  ^'The  Kaiser"  cites 
the  following  two  incidents. 

One  of  his  subjects  had  been  sentenced 
to  prison  for  hinting  something  disre- 
spectful about  his  sovereign: 

William  was  genuinely  amazed  that  such 
an  unnatural  crime  could  ever  have  been  com- 
mitted. He  "read  and  reread  the  papers  In 
the  case  with  the  closest  attention";  and 
finally  said  to  the  waiting  official:  "It  would 
seem  that  this  man  hitherto  has  not  been  a 
criminal — son  of  respectable  parents,  himself 
in  a  respectable  walk  of  life,  with  a  good 


74     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

education.  And  yet — how  do  you  explain 
this — this  insult  to  the  Anointed  of  the  Lord? 
Strange!    Strange!" 

On  another  occasion: 

After  reading  a  speech  of  the  Socialist 
leader  Bebel,  containing  some  animadver- 
sion upon  himself,  he  turned  to  the  officer 
In  attendance  with  clouded  brow  and  flash- 
ing eye,  and  remarked  In  a  voice  trembling 
with  passion :  "And  all  this  to  me !  To  me ! 
What  is  the  country  coming  to?" 

This  self-regarding  sentiment  is  also  at 
the  bottom  of  that  dominating  trait — love 
of  powder — w^hich  has  led  him  to  aspire 
to  v^orld  pov^^er  and  to  believe  that  v^ith 
his  army  and  w^ith  a  stronger  navy, 
tovs^ard  the  upbuilding  of  w^hich  he  has 
directed  untiringly  his  energies,  he  could 
conquer  the  world.  It  even  led  him  to 
think  of  conquering  the  United  States,  for 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     75 

when  we  were  engaged  in  war  with  Spain 
he  declared,  as  I  have  authority  for  say- 
ing, ^^If  I  had  had  a  larger  fleet  I  would 
have  taken  Uncle  Sam  by  the  scruff  of 
the  neck/'  * 

*  In  a  letter  to  the  author,  July  7,  1898,  Joseph  Cham- 
berlain, then  Colonial  Secretary  of  Great  Britain,  wrote: 

"Of  course  you  will  win,  and  will  be  able  to  dictate 
terms  to  Spain.  The  Continental  Powers  will  not  inter- 
fere because  England  will  not  join  them.  I  am  certain 
that  if  opinion  here  had  been  different  to  what  it  is,  you 
would  have  had  to  face  a  European  coalition. 

"A  fortnight  ago  (do  not  quote  me  as  the  authority) 
the  German  Emperor  said  to  a  friend  of  mine,  'If  I  had 
had  a  larger  fleet  I  would  have  taken  Uncle  Sam  by 
the  scruflf  of  the  neck' — and  this  represents  the  view  of 
the  older  monarchies  who  begin  to  desire  a  Monroe  Doc- 
trine for  Europe.  But,  in  view  of  the  attitude  of  this 
country,  they  dare  not  move. 

"You  are  therefore  free  to  work  out  your  destiny." 

I  have  now  been  fully  authorized  to  publish  this  letter. 
There  is  much  other  corroborative  evidence,  which  is 
undoubtedly  accessible,  of  this  attempt  to  form  a  Euro- 
pean coalition  against  the  United  States  and  of  its 
being  blocked  by  England.  (See  letter  of  Mr.  G.  Creigh- 
ton  Webb,  in  the  New  York  Times,  June  2,  1915.)  In 
this  connection  the  following  statement  in  my  possession 
giving  a  conversation  between  another  member  of  the 
English  Cabinet  and  the  late  Mr.  F.  W.  Holls,  formerly 
Judge  of  the  First  Hague  Tribunal  (and  my  informant's 


76     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

That  this  saying  of  the  Kaiser's  meant 
more  than  a  mere  momentary  ebullition 
of  petulant  feeling  or  a  thoughtless  boast 
becomes  manifest  when  we  bear  in  mind 
that  it  was  made  towards  the  end  of 
June,  1898,  after  the  arrival  of  Vice- 
Admiral  von  Diedrich  and  his  fleet 
at  Manila  on  June  12.  It  is  significant 
that  von  Diedrich,  when  asked  by  Dewey 
why  so  large  a  German  naval  force — fi\t 
ships,  a  more  powerful  force  than  that  of 
the  American  fleet — was  present,  replied, 
"I  am  here  by  order  of  the  Kaiser,  sir," 

guardian),  at  least  is  of  corroborative  value.  This  Cabi- 
net oflBcer  (mentioned  by  name)  said  to  Mr.  Holls  that 
during  the  Spanish-American  war,  the  Continental  Pow- 
ers had  a  plan  to  secure  England's  assent  to  interven- 
tion. One  of  the  London  ambassadors  was  appointed 
to  sound  him  on  the  proposition,  he  being  then  Acting- 
Prime  Minister.  On  being  asked  if  intervention  would 
meet  with  the  views  of  Her  Majesty's  government,  he 
said:  "Intervention  had  indeed  been  considered,  but — 
that  the  only  form  it  could  possibly  take  would  be  to 
place  the  fleet  of  Great  Britain  at  the  disposal  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States !" 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     77 

and  the  same  explanation  has  been  given 
since.  We  know  now  that  there  was  an 
attempt  made  to  form  a  coalition  of  Con- 
tinental monarchies  against  the  United 
States  to  intervene  in  the  war  in  favor  of 
Spain,  but  that  it  was  blocked  by  Eng- 
land who,  there  is  evidence  to  show, 
threatened  to  place  her  navy  on  the  side 
of  this  country.  Consequently  Germany 
and  the  other  Powers  dared  not  move.  As 
it  was  we  came  to  the  brink  of  war  in  July 
through  the  action  of  von  Diedrich  in  in- 
terfering, after  the  battle  of  Manila,  May 
I,  with  the  blockade  by  Dewey.* 

*  It  has  come  to  light  that  events  went  so  far  that  a 
German  ship,  it  has  been  reported,  cleared  for  action 
and  Dewey,  in  the  famous  choleric  interview  (July  10) 
with  the  German  Admiral's  representative,  Flag-Lieuten- 
ant V.  Hintzer,  threatened  war  if  Germany  wanted  it. 
This  part  of  the  interview  was  thus  reported  to  Mr. 
John  Barrett  by  "one  of  the  oflBcers  of  the  Olympia  who 
heard  the  conversation":  "If  the  German  Government" 
(said  Dewey)  "has  decided  to  make  war  on  the  United 
States,  or  has  any  intention  of  making  war,  and  has  so 


78      The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

The  remark  of  the  Kaiser  that  he 
"would  have  taken  Uncle  Sam  by  the 
scruff  of  the  neck"  must  be  taken  in  con- 
nection with  all  the  events  of  the  time  and 
particularly  with  the  attempt  to  form  a 
European  coalition  against  the  United 
States  which  probably  would  have  been 
successful  had  it  not  been  for  the  action 
of  England. 

And  so  this  same  self-regarding  senti- 
ment, distorted  and  unbalanced,  in  co- 
operation with  other  sentiments,  led  him 
in  1914  to  have  contempt  for  the  other 
Powers  and  to  believe  that  he  had  a 
strong  enough  army  to  terrify  Russia  and 
her  ally,  France,  into  submission,  and  so 
he  gave  Austria  authority  to  take  Servia 
"by  the  scruff  of  the  neck" ;  to  feel,  in  case 

informed  your  Admiral,  it  is  his  duty  to  let  me  know. 
.  .  .  But  whether  he  intends  to  fight  or  not  I  am 
ready."  (Admiral  George  Dewey,  by  John  Barrett:  1899: 
p.  115). 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     79 

the  gleam  of  the  ''shining  armour"  and 
the  clang  of  the  rattling  sabre  did  not 
suffice,  that  he  had  a  strong  enough  army 
to  take  Russia  ''by  the  scrufif  of  the  neck," 
and  so  he  declared  war  against  that  coun- 
try; to  feel  that  he  had  a  strong  enough 
army  to  take  France  "by  the  scrufif  of  the 
neck,"  and  so  he  declared  war  against 
France;  to  feel  that  he  had  a  strong 
enough  army  to  take  Belgium  "by  the 
scruff  of  the  neck,"  and  so  he  invaded  that 
country  with  his  army;  and  it  led  him 
more  than  twenty  years  ago  to  believe 
that  some  day  he  would  have  a  strong 
enough  navy  to  take  England  "by  the 
scruff  of  the  neck,"  and  so  he  builded  and 
builded  his  navy  and  drank  to  "Der 
Tag." 

Of  course  the  Kaiser's  hypertrophied 
and  one-sided  self-regarding  sentiment 
was  not  the  sole  psychological  factor  in 


8o     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

determining  his  attitude  of  mind  towards 
the  United  States  and  the  other  Powers. 
There  were  many  factors,  but  it  was  one; 
and  it  accounts  for  his  notorious  con- 
tempt for  other  nations  and  at  that  time, 
particularly,  for  the  United  States. 
There  were  also  sentiments  of  World- 
power  and  Empire,  of  German  Kultur 
and  War- Worship;  a  desire  to  have  a 
''place  in  the  sun,"  to  possess  colonies  and, 
in  particular,  the  Philippines  and  those 
of  England  and  France;  and  to  extend  the 
German  Empire  to  the  ^gean  Sea  on 
the  south  and  the  North  Sea  on  the  north. 

The  self-regarding  sentiment,  obvi- 
ously, has  played  also  a  large  part  in  the 
Divine  Right  Delusion,  in  cooperation 
with  the  wishes  we  have  considered,  form- 
ing a  large  ego-centric  complex. 

Such,  and  other  manifestations  of  the 
Kaiser's  self-regarding  sentiment,  due  to 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     8i 

the  impulsive  force  of  its  highly  devel- 
oped instinct  of  self-display,  (self-asser- 
tion,) v^ould  make  this  element  of  his 
personality  an  interesting  psychological 
study  by  itself.  I  merely  wish  now  to 
point  out  that  it  is  the  extreme  type  of 
this  sentiment  that  is  responsible  for 
many  of  his  extravagances  of  speech  and 
action,  and  that  it  plays  a  part,  as  we 
shall  see,  in  his  reactions  to  democracy. 


VII 

AIMS    OF    THE    GERMAN    DEMOCRACY 

TV  TOW  let  us  return  to  the  Kaiser's 
■^  ^  hatred  of  democracy.  This  also  is 
a  sentiment  organized  with  several  emo- 
tional instincts,  &c.,  which  we  need  not 
bother  about  here.  That  he  has  a  hatred 
of  democracy  is  obvious. 

But  why? 

To  know  that  he  has  a  hatred  is  not 
enough.  We  want  it  explained,  to  know 
why.  It  is  not  a  sufficient  explanation 
to  say  that  he  disbelieves  in  the  princi- 
ples of  democracy.  That  would  not  be 
sufficient  to  account  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  sentiment  of  hatred  and  for 
the  reaction  of  anger  which  democracy 

82 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     83 

excites.  What  created  the  hatred?  For 
so  much  emotion  there  must  be  a  deeper- 
lying  cause — some  hidden  sentiment 
which,  we  may  suspect,  conflicts  with  the 
sentiments  of  his  cherished  prerogatives 
and  his  self-regarding  sentiment. 

We  want  to  know  the  Why.  With  this 
object  let  us  consider  the  object  of  the 
hatred — the  aims  of  the  party  of  democ- 
racy, one  of  the  great  political  forces  in 
Prussia  and  the  empire;  one  with  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  Emperor  has  been 
passionately  in  conflict  since  his  acces- 
sion to  the  throne.  We  cannot  under- 
stand the  psychological  reaction  of  the 
Emperor  without  understanding  the  aims 
and  the  potential  power  of  this  political 
force.  For  this  purpose  I  shall  have  to 
ask  the  reader  to  bear  for  a  moment 
with  a  slight  digression,  keeping  in  mind 
what  has  been  said  about  the  Kaiser's 


84      The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

sentiments  until  we  return  to  our  main 
theme. 

What  does  the  Social  Democratic 
Party  stand  for  and  in  what  respect  are 
its  aims  antagonistic  to  the  Emperor-s 
prerogatives  and  the  German  system  of 
government?  The  party  is  widely  re- 
garded in  the  United  States,  I  am  con- 
strained to  believe,  as  the  party  of  so- 
cialism. But  this  idea  needs  consider- 
able modification.  Indeed,  so  much  so 
that  the  party  would,  if  its  aims  were  un- 
derstood, receive  the  moral  support  of 
Americans. 

Socialism  has  an  ominous  sound  to 
American  ears.  The  word  has  a  stigma 
for  many  and  is  calculated  to  repel.  At 
one  time  in  its  early  history  Marxian 
Socialism,  formulated  by  Marx  himself 
as  "the  social  ownership  of  the  means  of 
production    and    distribution,"   was    the 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     85 

dominating  aim  of  the  German  Socialist 
Party. 

But  times  have  changed.  The  aims  of 
the  party  have  undergone  various  meta- 
morphoses as  the  result  of  conflicts  of 
factions  within,  fusions  and  political  evo- 
lution. Since  the  Kaiser  came  to  the 
throne  in  1888  a  revolution  has  taken 
place  in  the  aims,  methods,  tactics,  and 
programs  of  the  party.  In  accordance 
with  this  change,  in  1890,  the  name 
was  changed  to  the  Social  Democratic 
Party.  Socialism  has  been  relegated 
to  the  background  and  democracy 
has  become  the  paramount  aim  and 
issue. 

In  other  words,  the  principles  of  the 
socialist,  Marx,  have  given  place  to  those 
of  the  brilliant  democratic  leader,  Las- 
salle.  Both  men  are  dead,  but  democracy 
survives.    As  one  authority  (S.  P.  Orth) 


86     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

puts  it,  ^'Marx  is  a  tradition,  democracy 
is  an  issue." 

Today  one  hears  very  little  of  Marx 
and  a  great  deal  of  ''legislation"  based 
on  democratic  principles: 

The  last  election  [19 12],  with  Its  brilliant 
victory  for  Social  Democracy,  was  not  won 
on  the  general  Issues  of  the  Erfurter  pro- 
gram, but  on  the  particular  Issue  of  the  ar- 
rogance of  the  bureaucracy  and  ballot  re- 
form. 

Marxian  propagandism  has  been 
sloughed  off.  But  even  if  the  Demo- 
cratic Party  still  stood  for  socialism  as 
its  paramount  aim  this  fact  would  not 
necessarily  make  it  antagonistic  to  the 
Emperor's  prerogatives  or  the  German 
system  of  government.  The  State  might 
become  engaged  in  all  sorts  of  individ- 
ual enterprises  without  the  fundamental 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser    87 

structure  of  Government  becoming  al- 
tered. As  a  matter  of  fact,  Germany  is 
today  the  most  socialized  nation  in  the 
world. 

We  will  not  stop  to  inquire  into  the 
origin  of  this  State  Socialism.  It  does 
not  matter  for  our  purposes  that  these 
State  socialistic  measures  were  offered  as 
a  "bribe,"  to  use  Bismarck's  term,  to  the 
Social  Democrats  to  cease  agitation 
against  the  government,  and  that  the  Em- 
peror long  ago  dropped  this  policy  when 
he  found  that  the  Social  Democrats 
would  not  be  bribed.  They  would  have 
none  of  these  measures.  They  wanted 
political  rights,  political  freedom  of 
thought  and  speech,  and  the  right  to  man- 
age their  own  government  just  as  we  do 
ours  in  the  United  States. 

The    German     State    owns    railroad, 
canal  and  river  transportation,  telegraph 


88     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

and  telephone  systems,  harbors  and  a  par- 
cel post.  It  conducts  banks,  insurance, 
savings  banks,  and  pawnshops.  It  ad- 
ministers sick  and  accident  insurance  and 
old-age  pensions.  The  municipalities 
own  public  utilities  of  all  kinds,  theatres, 
markets,  and  warehouses. 

The  State,  or  municipality,  obviously 
might  go  further  and  administer  iron, 
coal,  and  manufacturing  enterprises;  it 
might  undertake  all  sorts  of  socialistic 
functions  without  altering  one  whit  the 
prerogatives  of  the  Crown,  or  of  Par- 
liament, or  of  the  relations  of  the  Gov- 
ernment to  the  people.  Governmental 
autocracy  would  still  exist  and  very 
likely  would  administer  these  industrial 
enterprises  with  the  same  satisfying  ef- 
ficiency with  which  it  administers  every- 
thing else  it  has  taken  hold  of. 

The    intense    anger    and    hatred   with 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     89 

which  the  Emperor  reacts  to  the  Social 
Democrats  cannot,  therefore,  be  ex- 
plained by  the  principles  of  socialism 
per  se,  although  he  may  disbelieve  in  ex- 
treme Marxian  socialism.  Even  if  these 
were  still  the  aim  of  the  party,  there  must 
be  some  other  explanation  that  a  Social 
Democrat  should  be  stigmatized  as  an 
enemy  of  the  empire,  of  religion  and 
God,  to  be  shot  down  by  the  army  if  his 
party  became  too  strong. 

Let  us  examine  then  the  demands  as 
given  in  the  latest  program  (1912)  of 
the  Social  Democrats  and  some  of  the 
legislation  for  which  they  have  fought. 
The  demands  are  given  in  fourteen  ar- 
ticles. 

Number  one  demands  equal  opportu- 
nities for  all,  special  privileges  to  none — 
good  American  doctrine.  Number  two 
relates  to  reform  of  the  ballot  laws  and 


90    The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

has  been  the  main  immediate  issue. 
^'Universal,  direct,  equal,  secret  ballot'^ 
is  demanded — also  American  doctrine. 
Owing  to  the  present  inequality  of  the 
ballot  the  Democrats  have  been  badly 
handicapped  in  that  they  cannot  elect 
their  proportionate  number  of  repre- 
sentatives. 

Number  three  relates  to  the  existing 
system  of  government.  A  true  Parlia- 
mentary Government  is  demanded,  and  a 
Ministry,  like  that  of  England,  responsi- 
ble to  Parliament,  instead  of  the  present 
autocratic  system  by  which  the  Ministry 
is  responsible  only  to  the  Emperor.  Also, 
it  is  demanded  that  ^Uhe  power  to  declare 
war  or  maintain  peace''  he  given  to  the 
lower  house  (Reichstag).  Consent  of 
the  Reichstag  to  all  State  appropriations 
(as  with  the  House  of  Commons  and  the 
American  Congress). 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     91 

Numbers  four  and  five  relate  respec- 
tively to  the  organization  of  the  army  and 
reform  of  administrative  justice,  abolish- 
ing class  privilege  at  lav^,  &c.  Number 
six  demands  the  ^'right  to  combine,  meet, 
and  organize."  Number  seven  relates  to 
the  establishment  of  a  national  Depart- 
ment of  Labor,  factory  inspection,  and  a 
legalized  universal  eight-hour  day,  &c. 
Number  eight  relates  to  reform  of  the 
industrial  insurance  laws,  and  lowering 
the  age  of  old-age  pensions  from  70  to 
65,  &c. 

Number  nine:  complete  religious  free- 
dom. Separation  of  Church  and  State. 
No  support  of  any  kind  for  religious  pur- 
poses from  public  funds — good  Ameri- 
can doctrine  again.  Number  ten  de- 
mands universal  free  schools.  Number 
eleven  relates  to  reform  of  taxation  de- 
manding abolition  of  indirect  taxes  and 


92     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

taxes  on  necessities  of  life  and  reduction 
of  tariff  on  those  schedules  which  encour- 
age trusts. 

Number  twelve  supports  "measures 
that  tend  to  develop  commerce  and 
trade."  Number  thirteen:  "A  graduated 
income,  property  and  inheritance  tax" 
in  order  to  dampen  "the  ardor  of  the  rich 
for  a  constantly  increasing  army  and 
navy."  Number  fourteen:  "Internal  im- 
provements and  colonization";  but  the 
^^cessation  of  foreign  colonization  now 
done  for  the  purpose  of  exploiting  for- 
eign peoples  for  the  sake  of  gain/' 

The  first  thing  that  will  strike  the 
reader  is  the  absence  of  anything  essen- 
tially socialistic  in  the  principles  formu- 
lated in  this  program.  They  are  rather 
what  we  in  this  country  would  call  "Re- 
publican," "Progressive,"  and  "Demo- 
cratic."   They  are  not  nearly  as  social- 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser    93 

istic  as  many  of  the  functions  now  under- 
taken by  the  German  State.  With  the 
exception  of  those  articles  that  relate  ex- 
clusively to  German  conditions  (such  as 
numbers  four  and  eight)  and  the  aboli- 
tion of  indirect  taxation,  they  express 
good  American  doctrine  and  are,  for  the 
most  part,  axiomatic  in  this  country. 

No  American  and  no  Englishman 
would  see  anything  in  them  to  get  ex- 
cited about,  although  he  might  hold  a 
different  opinion  about  the  expediency 
of  one  or  the  other  demand.  Undoubted- 
ly the  spirit  of  German  democracy  goes 
further  than  the  program,  especially  in 
particular  parts  of  Germany;  neverthe- 
less this  program  formulates  the  demands 
of  the  national  party. 

Between  the  American  Republic  and 
German  democracy  there  is,  or  should  be, 
a  bond  of  common  sympathy,  the  bond  of 


94     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

common  political  ideals  and  common 
purpose — the  love  of  political  and  reli- 
gious liberty,  freedom  of  thought,  free- 
dom of  speech,  and  freedom  of  the  press 
without  fear  of  imprisonment  or  punish- 
ment under  '4ese-majeste"  or  any  power 
of  the  State;  the  emancipation  of  man- 
kind from  the  tyranny  of  autocracy;  the 
"right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness"  according  to  the  dictates  of 
the  individual  conscience;  the  rule  of  the 
people  and  not  of  an  autocracy,  the  sub- 
ordination of  the  State  to  the  will  of  the 
people — and  to  this  end  government 
based  not  upon  an  army,  but  upon  public 
opinion  as  expressed  by  the  votes  of  the 
people. 

When  these  ideals  and  purposes  of  the 
German  democracy  are  realized  in  the 
United  States,  American  public  opinion 
will  have  the  strongest  ties  of  sympathy 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser    95 

with  the  great  masses  of  Germany,  strug- 
gling for  these  ends  against  an  intrenched 
"State." 

Between  German  democracy  and 
American  public  sentiment  there  can  be 
no  conflict.  It  is  only  with  the  autocratic 
classes  that  there  can  be  antagonism,  but 
the  autocratic  classes  mean  the  State  as 
an  artificially  created  entity  isolated  from 
and  distinct  from  the  masses  of  the  peo- 
ple. 

Why,  then,  does  the  Emperor  almost 
alone,  even  among  Germans,  react  to 
the  ideals  of  democracy  with  such  pas- 
sion, such  anger,  and  such  hatred?  On 
psychological  grounds  we  can  anticipate 
that  such  emotion  must  be  for  personal 
reasons  and  because  they  strike  some  in- 
tense emotional  sentiment. 

We  find  the  key  to  the  puzzle  when  we 
come  to  examine  Articles  3  and  4.  Num- 


96     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

ber  three  has  been  the  paramount  issue 
of  the  democracy — it  is  its  foundation 
stone.  Number  two,  the  reform  of  the 
ballot,  while  the  main  political  issue  of 
the  day,  is  only  a  means  to  this  end. 

The  fundamental  issue  is  (i)  a  true 
Parliamentary  Government,  with  parlia- 
mentary power  in  conformity  with  mod- 
ern democratic  ideas,  such  as  obtains  in 
England;  and  (2)  the  abolition  of  a 
Chancellor  and  Ministry  appointed  by 
the  Kaiser  and  responsible  only  to  the 
Kaiser  and  the  substitution  of  a  Govern- 
ment responsible  to  Parliament.  Thus 
the  Government  and  the  army  would  be 
responsible  to  the  people  and  rest  upon 
public  opinion. 

This  democratic  principle  seems  to  our 
ideas  not  only  harmless  enough,  but  a 
matter  of  course  and  only  the  expression 
of  the  age  we  live  in.     But  to  the  Kai- 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     97 

ser  it  means  a  personal  cataclysm.  It 
means  the  abolition  of  the  greatest  of  the 
Kaiser's  prerogatives;  it  means  the  denial 
of  the  Divine  right  of  Kings;  it  means 
the  downfall  of  the  House  of  Hohenzol- 
lern,  in  that  it  means  the  reduction  of 
the  prerogatives  of  the  house  to  reigning 
without  governing. 

He  could  be  no  longer  his  own  Chan- 
cellor, as  he  is  recognized  generally  to 
be  today  in  fact.  His  wings  would  be 
clipped.  He  would  be  shorn  of  auto- 
cratic power.  He  could  no  longer  dic- 
tate policies  of  government.  The  will  of 
the  people  would  rule.  What  would  be 
the  use  of  a  ^'Divine  right"  to  sit  as  a 
social  ornament  upon  a  throne  and  watch 
the  people  rule? 

Furthermore,  his  ^'self-regarding  sen- 
timent," characterized  by  the  instinct  of 
self-assertion  and  the  emotion  of  pride, 


98     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

would  receive  an  unbearable  rebuff.  He 
would  no  longer  be  the  central  figure  in 
Europe,  overlording  all  other  rulers  by 
his  personality,  his  autocratic  power,  and 
his  prerogatives.  The  conflict  between 
the  Kaiser  and  the  democracy  thus  be- 
comes a  personal  conflict  on  his  part. 


VIII 

THE  REAL  CAUSE  OF  THE   KAISER'S 
ANTIPATHY 

GATHERING  together  the  facts 
which  we  have  collated,  we  have 
found  in  the  Kaiser  intensely  strong  senti- 
ments of  his  prerogatives,  an  almost  ab- 
normal self-regarding  sentiment,  and  a 
powerful,  steadily  growing  political 
party  acting  in  antagonism  to  those  sen- 
timents and  threatening  in  case  of  suc- 
cess to  rob  him  of  his  prerogatives. 

Now,  with  these  facts  in  mind,  let  us 
analyze  the  antecedent  contents  of  the 
Kaiser's  mind  a  little  more  intimately. 
If  he  has  been  a  thinking  being  at  all,  we 
know,  in  view  of  the  political  and  his- 

99 


lOO     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

torical  facts  we  have  studied — any  asser- 
tion to  the  contrary  would  meet  with  in- 
credulous skepticism — there  have  been 
thoughts,  however  fleeting,  of  what 
would  happen  to  himself  and  his  house 
if  the  democratic  reforms  should  prevail; 
thoughts  of  being  robbed  of  his  preroga- 
tives, robbed  of  his  power  to  rule  the 
Kingdom  of  Prussia,  to  rule  the  Imperial 
Bundesrat  by  his  power  as  King  of 
Prussia,  to  rule  the  Reichstag  through 
the  Bundesrat;  thoughts  of  being  robbed 
of  the  prerogatives  to  be  his  own  Chan- 
cellor, to  appoint  his  own  Ministry,  to 
control  the  army,  to  be  independent  of 
Parliament  and  public  opinion  and  the 
public  will — in  short,  robbed  of  being  an 
autocratic  ruler  of  the  Kingdom  of  Prus- 
sia and  the  German  Empire  by  Divine 
right. 

And  there  has  been  a  full  realization 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser     loi 

of  the  increasing  power  of  democracy, 
steadily  growing  in  numbers,  and  rising, 
swelling,  year  by  year,  like  a  great  ir- 
resistible tidal  wave,  threatening  sooner 
or  later  to  carry  all  before  it  and  over- 
whelm the  system  of  autocracy.  And 
against  this  growing  avalanche  of  bal- 
lots of  the  democracy  he  sees  no  defense 
for  himself  save  the  army,  and  so  he 
calls  upon  his  soldiers  to  be  prepared  to 
"shoot  down  your  own  relatives,  brothers, 
and  even  parents  in  the  streets,"  when 
he  shall  give  the  word  of  command. 

Such  thoughts  and  such  realizations  of 
future  danger  could  not  but  excite  the 
biological  defensive  instinct  of  fear.  And 
this  instinct,  being  associated  with  its  ob- 
ject, the  idea  of  democracy,  forms  a  sen- 
timent, the  fear  of  democracy.  This  sen- 
timent is  further  associated  with  or  crys- 
tallized about  other  egoistic  sentiments  of 


I02     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

self  and  his  House  and  his  prerogatives. 
Hence  it  may  be  described  as  a  fear  of 
democracy  because  of  the  danger  to  him- 
self and  his  House  of  Hohenzollern,  a 
fear  of  being  deprived  by  the  hands  of 
the  democracy  of  his  prerogative  to  be 
an  autocrat.  It  is  a  fear  of  democracy, 
not  for  Germany  but  for  himself.  He 
fears  for  his  own  life,  so  to  speak,  for, 
if  you  rob  him  of  his  prerogatives,  do 
you  not  take  away  that  which  to  him  is 
his  life? 

This  does  not  mean  that  he  is  aware 
of  this  very  personal  egoistic  or  egocen- 
tric fear-sentiment.  He  undoubtedly 
would  not  admit  it  to  others,  nor  is  it 
likely  that  he  could,  even  if  he  would, 
admit  it  to  himself,  because  it  has  not 
been  squarely  faced,  but  has  been  thrust 
aside,  repressed  by  the  pride  of  his  self- 
regarding  sentiment  and  not  allowed  to 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser      103 

come  to  the  full  light  of  consciousness. 
Though  not  recognized  by  himself,  it  is 
there  all  the  same,  repressed  into  the  sub- 
conscious, or,  if  you  prefer,  in  the  back- 
ground of  the  mind  (which,  after  all,  is 
a  part  of  the  subconscious). 

Repressed  into  the  subconscious,  it  is 
there  necessarily  intimately  systematized 
with,  and  has  deep  roots  in,  the  many 
associated  antecedent  thoughts  that,  as 
we  have  seen,  gave  rise  to  it.  So  long 
as  these  so-called  psycho-genetic  thoughts 
are  there  unmodified — conserved  also, 
like  a  phonographic  record,  in  the  sub- 
conscious— he  could  not  get  rid  of  his 
fixed  fear  of  the  democracy  if  he  would. 

In  this  light  his  famous  declaration  of 
his  prerogative,  ''I  am  the  Supreme  War 
Lord,"  receives  deeper  meaning  when  at 
the  same  time  we  remember  he  is  the 
head  of  that  autocracy  that  wields  the 


I04     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

power.  We  can  see  into  the  background 
of  his  mind.  He  sees  the  danger,  we  see 
the  fear.  We  see,  too,  in  the  background 
of  his  mind  a  realization  of  a  growing 
democracy,  and  we  find  there  upon  what 
methods  he  relies  if  the  German  democ- 
racy should  win  at  the  polls  and  change 
the  Constitution.  To  oppose  the  will  of 
the  people  he  has  the  army.  And  we 
see  into  his  inner  consciousness  when  he 
prepared  (as  already  quoted)  the  minds 
of  his  young  soldiers  for  ''the  day." 


IX 

THE   kaiser's  antipathy   AN   OBSESSION 
AND  A  DEFENSE  REACTION 

NOW  let  US  go  one  step  further.  Al- 
though this  egocentric  sentiment  of 
fear  for  himself  and  his  dynasty  is  re- 
pressed into  the  subconscious,  it  is  not  for 
that  reason  inert  and  incapable  of  affect- 
ing his  conscious  processes.  On  the  con- 
trary, as  we  are  forced  to  believe  from 
the  result  of  psychological  investigations 
into  such  conditions  of  personality,  it  de- 
termines many  of  his  conscious  processes 
of  thought,  of  his  political  principles  and 
his  activities  against  his  most  dangerous 
political  enemy. 

In  the  first  place,  it  induces  a  defense 
105 


io6     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

reaction  of  an  intensely  emotional  char- 
acter which  aims  to  direct  his  activities  in 
a  direction  that  will  protect  him  against 
the  dangers  of  democracy.  This  defense 
reaction  is  anger  and  the  sentiment  of 
hatred. 

It  should  be  explained  that  psychologi- 
cal analysis  of  the  emotions  goes  to  show 
that  the  sentiment  of  hatred  is  made  up 
of  several  emotions  associated  with  its 
object,  of  at  least  fear  and  anger  and 
vengeful  emotions,  which  last  also  in- 
cludes anger  besides  that  most  conspicu- 
ous trait  of  the  Kaiser — the  self-regard- 
ing sentiment. 

The  way  the  defense  reaction  comes 
into  play  is  this:  The  instinctive  emo- 
tions and  their  sentiments  are  awakened 
and  recur  from  time  to  time  whenever 
the  subconscious  egoistic  sentiment  or 
any     of     its     associated     psychogenetic 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser      107 

thoughts — those  of  his  possible  fall  from 
power — is  touched.  The  sentiments  of 
fear  he  will  not  admit  to  himself,  and 
they  are  repressed  as  such;  but  the  fear- 
emotion  appears  in  consciousness  dis- 
guised as  hatred,  of  which  it  is  a  compo- 
nent. Anger  against  and  hatred  of 
democracy  he  is  prepared  to  admit. 
They  are  fully  faced  and  rise  into  the  full 
light  of  consciousness,  although  their  real 
underlying  cause  is  hidden. 

Such  an  intensely  fixed  emotional  idea, 
(hatred,)  recurring  whenever  its  object 
is  presented  to  consciousness,  is,  in  prin- 
ciple, an  obsession,  although  it  may  not 
be  so  beyond  control  as  to  be  pathologi- 
cal. But,  as  in  the  Kaiser's  case,  it  may 
be  only  the  apparent  obsession,  i.  e.,  a 
defense  reaction  to  the  real  obsession  hid- 
den in  the  subconscious.  The  Kaiser  s 
real  obsession  is  a  subconscious  phobia,  a 


io8     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

fear  of  democracy  for  himself  and  his 
House. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  in  this  con- 
nection how  the  national  hatred  of  one 
nation  for  another  is  recognized  by  pop- 
ular language  as  a  phobia  or  fear.  We 
speak  of  an  Anglo-phobia,  of  a  Russo- 
phobia,  to  describe  the  hatred  of,  let  us 
say,  Germany  for  England  and  Russia. 
Though  the  nation  would  not  admit 
being  afraid,  nevertheless,  by  the  very 
term  employed,  it  is  popularly  recog- 
nized that  the  hatred  is  really  though  un- 
consciously the  expression  of  a  fear. 

In  the  case  of  the  Kaiser's  phobia  of 
democracy,  the  impulsive  forces  of  the 
biological  instincts  of  pugnacity,  (anger), 
fear,  self-assertion,  &c.,  provide  the  en- 
ergy of  the  fighting  spirit  and  carry  to 
fruition  his  political  ideas  aimed  at  re- 
pressing the  Social  Democrats.     This  is 


The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser      109 

exemplified  by  the  Kaiser's  exhortations, 
threats,  and  epithets  hurled  in  his 
speeches  at  these  alone  of  his  political  en- 
emies, and  by  the  laws  enacted  and  the 
use  of  the  lese-majeste  to  suppress  them. 
By  suppressing  the  Social  Democracy  he 
is  defended  from  his  peril.  Hence,  as 
I  have  said,  anger  and  hatred  is  a  defense 
reaction. 

There  are  other  ways  in  which  the 
Kaiser's  subconscious  phobia  uncon- 
sciously determines  his  mental  behavior 
— by  this  I  mean  his  modes  or  reasoning, 
his  political  principles  and  activities.  As 
is  well  recognized  not  only  by  psycholo- 
gists but  by  popular  notions,  such  a  re- 
pressed, unadmitted  sentiment  becomes  a 
motivating  force,  a  subconscious  motive 
that  directs  our  conscious  reasonings. 

Thus  the  Kaiser  rationalizes,  as  psy- 
chologists say,  his  political  objections  to 


no     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

democracy — that  is,  unwilling  to  admit 
his  real  objections,  he  finds  and  formu- 
lates logical  reasons  why  democracy  is 
wrong  and  why  his  own  opinions  are 
right,  really  believing  in  them,  perhaps, 
as  God-given.  Saving  the  introduction 
of  the  Deity,  this  is  nothing  more  than 
what  every  one  does  who  is  unconscious- 
ly influenced  by  subconscious  motives  of 
which  he  is  unaware. 

When  we  say  that  a  person  is  uncon- 
sciously influenced  by  this  or  that,  un- 
consciously governed  by  a  prejudice  or 
sentiment  like  jealousy  or  fear  or  am- 
bition or  what  not,  we  mean  that  he  is 
governed  by  a  motive  which  is  subcon- 
scious, which  he  will  not  admit  to  him- 
self, and  of  which  he  is  therefore  un- 
aware. It  determines  his  thoughts  just  as 
the  hidden  works  of  a  clock  determine 
the  movements  of  the  hands  and  chimes. 


THE    MORAL 

TXTfiAT  is  the  moral  of  all  this? 
^  ^  Surely  the  insight  into  the  Kai- 
ser's mind  which  a  study  of  his  senti- 
ments and  his  phobia  has  given  us  reveals 
something  more  important  than  the  mere 
personality  of  an  exalted  personage — ex- 
alted in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  It  gives 
us  an  insight  into  the  political  forces 
which  are  wrestling  within  the  German 
Empire  for  those  ideals  for  which  hu- 
manity has  been  striving  through  all  the 
ages.  It  reveals  the  forces  which  for 
years  have  been  striving  with  might  and 
main  to  suppress  these  ideals.  And  it  re- 
veals the  forces  upon  which  the  world 

must  depend  to  overthrow  Germanism. 
Ill 


112     The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser 

The  Kaiser  and  his  House  of  Hohen- 
zollern  and  all  that  they  stand  for  have 
become  Civilization's  World-Problem. 

If  the  Powers  of  Europe  v^ant  lasting 
peace  through  the  overthrow  of  autoc- 
racy and  militarism,  i.  e.,  Germanism,  the 
obsession  of  the  Kaiser  points  the  way — 
look  to  the  democracy  of  Germany! 


University  of  California  Libraiy 
Los  Angeles 

_____j;|^i^booJ^     on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


^3 


REC'D  C.L  JUNi  Jy5 


.5,tttUNIVER5yA.        vvlOSANCElfj-;* 


315 


.^OFCAllFOJ 


o 


f 


■T/. 


^.QFCALIfO/?,)k.        ^OFCAllfO^ 


L  006  674  117  4  .^^ 


cz 

,     „     ja ^    CO 


JM  i^^ 


UNIYEI?% 


lONVSOl^ 


^lOS|ANCElfj^ 
o 


3(7 


^lOSANCEliPr;> 


^ 


2?     ::5 


>&Aavaani^      >&Aavaan-^^ 


Si  l^i ! 


^lUbANlitlfJ-^ 


%a3AiNnmv 


CALIFO%      ^OF'CAilFOto 


avHdiii^    '^c'Abvjjan-AS^ 


^^WE•UNIVERy/^ 
>- 


<ril3DNVS01^ 


o 


%JI3AINfl-3Wv 


SI, 


^ILIBRARYQc^       A^lllBRARYQ^^ 


